THE  LIBRARY 

OF 
THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


CAMILLE   SAINT-SAENS. 


GREAT 

ITALIAN     AND     FRENCH 
COMPOSERS 

PALESTRINA   TO   MASSENET 


BY 

GEORGE   T.   FERRIS 

.V 


NEW  EDITION 
REVISED  AND  ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK  AND   LONDON 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1914 


COPYRKHIT,   1H78,  1805, 
BY  D.   AITLKTON   AND  COMPANY, 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


M-USIC 

L 


PREFACE  TO  THE  REVISED  EDITION. 


THE  continuous  demand  for  this  series,  in- 
cluding the  five  volumes,  "  Great  German  Com- 
posers," "  Great  Italian  and  French  Composers," 
"  Great  Singers,"  First  and  Second  Series,  and 
"  Great  Violinists  and  Pianists,"  has  led  to  the 
revision  of  the  volumes.  Nearly  twenty  years 
have  passed  since  the  first — "  The  Great  German 
Composers" — was  written,  and  many  changes 
have  taken  place  since  then.  The  attempt  has 
been  made,  so  far  as  is  consistent  with  the  limits 
of  space,  to  bring  these  little  books  down  to 
date,  revising  the  articles  where  it  was  needed, 
and  making  addenda  in  sketches  of  living  or 
very  recently  living  composers  and  artists,  who 
may  be  said  to  represent  most  fully  the  achieve- 
ments and  tendencies  of  contemporary  music. 

1110379 


iv  PREFACE   TO   THE   REVISED   EDITION. 

It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  the  obligations  of 
limit  have,  even  in  this  revision,  excluded  sev- 
eral subjects  fully  worthy  of  association  with 
the  others. 


NOTE. 


THE  task  of  compressing  into  one  small  vol- 
ume suitable  sketches  of  the  more  famous  Ital- 
ian and  French  composers  has  been,  in  view  of 
the  extent  of  the  field  and  the  wealth  of  mate- 
rial, a  somewhat  embarrassing  one,  especially  as 
the  purpose  was  to  make  the  sketches  of  inter- 
est to  the  general  music-loving  public,  and  not 
merely  to  the  critic  and  the  scholar.  The  plan 
pursued  has  been  to  devote  the  bulk  of  space  to 
composers  of  the  higher  rank,  and  to  pass  over 
those  less  known  with  such  brief  mention  as 
sufficed  to  outline  their  lives  and  fix  their  place 
in  the  history  of  music.  In  gathering  the  facts 
embodied  in  these  musical  sketches,  the  author 
acknowledges  his  obligations  to  the  following 
works  :  Hullah's  "  History  of  Modern  Music  "  ; 
Fetis's  "  Biographic  Universelle  des  Musiciens  " ; 


vi  NOTE. 

dementi's  "  Biographic  des  JVIusiciens  " ;  Ho 
garth's  "  History  of  the  Opera  " ;  Sutherland 
Edwards's  "  History  of  the  Opera  "  ;  Schliiter's 
"  History  of  Music  "  ;  Chorley's  "  Thirty  Years' 
Musical  Reminiscences  "  ;  Stendhall's  u  Vie  du 
Rossini "  ;  Bellasys's  "  Memorials  of  Cherubi- 
ni " ;  Grove's  "  Musical  Dictionary  "  ;  Cro- 
west's  "  Musical  Anecdotes "  ;  and  the  various 
articles  in  the  standard  cyclopaedias. 

"  The  Great  Italian  and  French  Composers  " 
is  a  companion  work  to  "  The  Great  German 
Composers,"  which  was  published  earlier  in  the 
series  in  which  the  present  volume  appears. 

Such  changes  have  been  made  in  the  re- 
vised edition  in  the  lives  of  Verdi  and  Gounod, 
the  latter  only  a  short  time  dead,  as  are  nercs 
sary  to  render  them  complete.  Sketches  have 
been  added  of  the  more  prominent  masters  of 
the  latest  French  school,  St.  Sae'ns,  Bizet,  and 
Massenet,  and  portraits  of  some  of  the  great 
musicians  of  Italy  and  France. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

PALESTRINA           ......  7 

PICCINI,  PAISIELLO,  AND  CIUAZOSA   ...  17 

ROSSINI     .......  48 

DONIZETTI  AND  BELLINI         ....  85 

VERDI       .......  104 

CHERCBINI  AND  HIS  PREDECESSORS    .            .            .  120 

MEHUL,  SPONTINI,  AND  HALEVY  ....  175 

BOIELDIEC  AND  Al'BER           ....  195 

MEYERBEER            ......  205 

GOCNOD  AND  THOMAS             ....  228 

BERLIOZ    .......  255 

SAINT  SAENS,  BIZET,  AND  MASSBNKT  .            .            .  292 


PORTRAITS. 


FACING 
PAGE 


Charles  Camille  Saint-Saens  .  Frontispiece 

Gioacchino  Rossini        .  .  .  .  .48 

Giuseppe  Verdi        .....  104 

Giacoino  Meyerbeer       .....    205 
Charles  Gounod       .....  228 

Jules  E.  F.  Massenet  ,    292 


THE  GREAT  ITALIAN  AND  FRENCH 
COMPOSERS, 


PALESTRINA. 


THE  Netherlands  share  other  glories  than  that 
of  having  nursed  the  most  indomitable  spirit  of 
liberty  known  to  mediaeval  Europe.  The  fine  as 
well  as  the  industrial  arts  found  among  this  re- 
markable people,  distinguished  by  Erasmus  as 
possessed  of  the  patientia  laboris,  an  eager  and 
passionate  culture.  The  early  contributions  of 
the  Low  Countries  to  the  growth  of  the  pictorial 
art  are  well  known  to  all.  But  to  most  it  will  be 
a  revelation  that  the  Belgian  school  of  music  was 
the  great  fructifying  influence  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  to  which  Italy  and  Germany  owe  a  debt 
not  easily  measured.  The  art  of  interweaving 
parts  and  that  science  of  sound  known  as  counter- 
point were  placed  by  this  school  of  musical  schol- 
ars and  workers  on  a  solid  basis,  which  enabled 


8       GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

the  great  composers  who  came  after  them  to 
build  their  beautiful  tone  fabrics  in  forms  of  im- 
perishable beauty  and  symmetry.  For  a  long 
time  most  of  the  great  Italian  churches  had  Bel- 
gian chapel-masters,  and  the  value  of  their  exam- 
ple and  teachings  was  vital  in  its  relation  to  Ital- 
ian music. 

The  last  great  master  among  the  Belgians,  and, 
after  Palestrina,  the  greatest  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, was  Orlando  di  Lasso,  born  in  Hainault,  in  the 
year  1520.  His  life  of  a  little  more  than  three 
score  years  and  ten  was  divided  between  Italy 
and  Germany.  He  left  the  deep  imprint  of  his 
severe  style,  though  but  a  young  man,  on  his 
Italian  confreres,  and  the  young  Palestrina  owed 
to  him  much  of  the  largene.ss  and  beauty  of  form 
through  which  he  poured  his  genius  in  the  creation 
of  such  works  as  have  given  him  so  distinct  a 
place  in  musical  history.  The  pope  created  Or- 
lando di  Lasso  Knight  of  the  Golden  Spur,  and 
sought  to  keep  him  in  Italy.  Unconcerned  as  to 
fame,  the  gentle,  peaceful  musician  lived  for  his 
art  alone,  and  the  flattering  expressions  of  the 
great  were  not  so  much  enjoyed  as  endured  by 
him.  A  musical  historian,  Heimsoeth,  says  of 
him  :  "  He  is  the  brilliant  master  of  the  North, 
great  and  sublime  in  sacred  composition,  of  inex- 
haustible invention,  displaying  much  breadth,  va- 
riety, and  depth  in  his  treatment  ;  he  delights  in 
full  and  powerful  harmonies,  yet,  after  all — owing 


PALESTRIXA.  9 

to  an  existence  passed  in  journeys,  as  well  as  ser- 
vice at  court,  and  occupied  at  the  same  time  with 
both  sacred  and  secular  music — he  came  short  of 
that  lofty,  solemn  tone  which  pervades  the  works 
of  the  great  master  of  the  South,  Palestrina,  who 
with  advancing  years  restricted  himself  more  and 
more  to  church  music."  Of  the  celebrated  peni- 
tential psalms  of  Di  Lasso,  it  is  said  that  Charles 
IX.  of  France  ordered  them  to  be  written  "  in 
order  to  obtain  rest  for  his  soul  after  the  horrible 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew."  Aside  from  his 
works,  this  musician  has  a  claim  on  fame  through 
his  lasting  improvements  in  musical  form  and  meth- 
od. He  illuminated,  and  at  the  same  time  closed, 
the  great  epoch  of  Belgian  ascendancy,  which  had 
given  three  hundred  musicians  of  great  science  to 
the  times  in  which  they  lived.  So  much  has  been 
said  of  Orlando  di  Lasso,  for  he  was  the  model  and 
Mentor  of  the  greatest  of  early  church  compos- 
ers, Palestrina. 

n. 

THE  melodious  and  fascinating  style,  soon  to 
give  birth  to  the  characteristic  genius  of  the 
opera,  was  as  yet  unborn,  though  dormant.  In 
Rome,  the  chief  seat  of  the  Belgian  art,  the  ex- 
clusive study  of  technical  skill  had  frozen  music 
to  a  mere  formula.  The  Gregorian  chant  had 
become  so  overladen  with  mere  embellishments  as 
to  make  the  prescribed  church-form  difficult  of 


10     GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COM  POSERS. 

recognition  in  its  borrowed  garb,  for  it  had  be> 
come  a  mere  jumble  of  sound.  Musicians,  in- 
deed, carried  their  profanation  so  far  as  to  take 
secular  melodies  as  the  themes  for  masses  and 
motetts.  These  were  often  called  by  their  pro- 
fane titles.  So  the  name  of  a  love -sonnet  or  a 
drinking-song  would  sometimes  be  attached  to  a 
miserere.  The  council  of  Trent,  in  1562,  cut  at 
these  evils  with  sweeping  axe,  and  the  solemn 
anathemas  of  the  church  fathers  roused  the  crea- 
tive powers  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  who 
raised  his  art  to  an  independent  national  exist- 
ence, and  made  it  rank  with  sculpture  and  paint- 
ing, which  had  already  reached  their  zenith  in 
Leonardo  Da  Vinci,  Raphael,  Correggio,  Titian, 
and  Michel  Angelo.  Henceforth  Italian  music 
was  to  be  a  vigorous,  fruitful  stock. 

Giovanni  Perluigui  Aloisio  da  Palestrina  was 
born  at  Palestrina,  the  ancient  Praeneste,  in  1524.* 
The  memorials  of  his  childhood  are  scanty.  We 
know  but  little  except  that  his  parents  were  poor 
peasants,  and  that  he  learned  the  rudiments  of 
literature  and  music  as  a  choir-singer,  a  starting- 
point  so  common  in  the  lives  of  great  composers. 
In  1540  he  went  to  Rome  and  studied  in  the 
school  of  Goudimel,  a  stern  Huguenot  Fleming, 

Our  composer,  as  was  common  with  artists  and  scholars 
in  those  days,  took  the  name  of  his  natal  town,  and  by  this  he 
is  known  to  fame.  Old  documents  also  give  him  the  old  Latin 
name  of  the  town  with  the  personal  ending. 


PALESTRIXA.  11 

tolerated  in  the  papal  capital  on  account  of  his 
superior  science  and  method  of  teaching,  and 
afterward  murdered  at  Lyons  on  the  day  of  the 
Paris  massacre.  Palestrina  grasped  the  essential 
doctrines  of  the  school  without  adopting  its  man- 
nerisms. At  the  age  of  thirty  he  published  his 
first  compositions,  and  dedicated  them  to  the 
reigning  pontiff,  Julius  III.  In  the  formation  of 
his  style,  which  moved  with  such  easy,  original 
grace  within  the  old  prescribed  rules,  he  learned 
much  from  the  personal  influence  and  advice  of 
Orlando  di  Lasso,  his  warm  friend  and  constant 
companion  during  these  earlier  days. 

Several  of  his  compositions,  written  at  this 
time,  are  still  performed  in  Rome  on  Good  Fri- 
day, and  Goethe  and  Mendelssohn  have  left  their 
eloquent  tributes  to  the  impression  made  on  them 
by  music  alike  simple  and  sublime.  The  pope 
was  highly  pleased  with  Palestrina's  noble  music, 
and  appointed  him  one  of  the  papal  choristers, 
then  regarded  as  a  great  honor.  But  beyond 
Rome  the  new  light  of  music  was  but  little 
known.  The  Council  of  Trent,  in  their  first  in- 
dignation at  the  abuse  of  church  music,  had  re- 
solved to  abolish  everything  but  the  simple  Gre- 
gorian chants,  but  the  remonstrances  of  the  Em- 
peror Ferdinand  and  the  Roman  cardinals  stayed 
the  austere  fiat.  The  final  decision  was  made  to 
rest  on  a  new  composition  of  Palestrina,  who  was 
permitted  to  demonstrate  that  the  higher  forms 


12     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

of  musical  art  were  consistent  with  the  solemni- 
ties of  church  worship. 

All  eyes  were  directed  to  the  young  musician, 
for  the  very  existence  of  his  art  was  at  stake. 
The  motto  of  his  first  mass,  "  Illumina  oculos 
meos,"  shows  the  pious  enthusiasm  with  which  he 
undertook  his  labors.  Instead  of  one,  he  com- 
posed three  six-part  masses.  The  third  of  these 
excited  such  admiration  that  the  pope  exclaimed 
in  raptures,  "  It  is  John  who  gives  us  here  in  this 
earthly  Jerusalem  a  foretaste  of  that  new  song 
which  the  holy  Apostle  John  realized  in  the  heav- 
enly Jerusalem  in  his  prophetic  trance."  This  is 
now  known  as  the  "  mass  of  Pope  Marcel,"  in 
honor  of  a  former  patron  of  Palestrina. 

A  new  pope,  Paul  IV.,  on  ascending  the  pon- 
tifical throne,  carried  his  desire  of  reforming 
abuses  to  fanaticism.  He  insisted  on  all  the  papal 
choristers  being  clerical.  Palestrina  had  married 
early  in  life  a  Roman  lady,  of  whom  all  we  know 
is  that  her  name  was  Lucretia.  Four  children 
had  blessed  the  union,  and  the  composer's  domes- 
tic happiness  became  a  bar  to  his  temporal  prefer- 
ment. With  two  others  he  was  dismissed  from 
the  chapel  because  he  was  a  layman,  and  a  trifling 
pension  allowed  him.  Two  months  afterward, 
though,  he  was  appointed  chapel-master  of  St. 
John  Lateran.  His  works  now  succeeded  each 
other  rapidly,  and  different  collections  of  his 
masses  were  dedicated  to  the  crowned  heads  of 


PALESTRINA.  13 

Europe.  In  1571  he  was  appointed  chapel-master 
of  the  Vatican,  and  Pope  Gregory  XIII.  gave 
special  charge  of  the  reform  of  sacred  music  to 
Palestrina. 

The  death  of  the  composer's  wife,  whom  he 
idolized,  in  1580,  was  a  blow  from  which  he  never 
recovered.  In  his  latter  days  he  was  afflicted 
with  great  poverty,  for  the  positions  he  held  were 
always  more  honorable  than  lucrative.  Mental 
depression  and  physical  weakness  burdened  the 
last  few  years  of  his  pious  and  gentle  life,  and 
he  died  after  a  lingering  and  severe  illness.  The 
register  of  the  pontifical  chapel  contains  this  en- 
try :  "  February  2,  1594.  This  morning  died  the 
most  excellent  musician,  Signer  Giovanni  Pales- 
trina, our  dear  companion  and  maestro  di  capella 
of  St.  Peter's  church,  whither  his  funeral  was  at- 
tended not  only  by  all  the  musicians  of  Rome, 
but  by  an  infinite  concourse  of  people,  when  his 
own  '  Libera  me,  Domine  '  was  sung  by  the  whole 
college." 

Such  are  the  simple  and  meagre  records  of 
the  life  of  the  composer,  who  carved  and  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  superstructure  of  Italian  music ; 
who,\iewed  in  connection  with  his  times  and 
their  limitations,  must  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
great  creative  minds  in  his  art ;  who  shares  with 
Sebastian  Bach  the  glory  of  having  built  an  im- 
perishable base  for  the  labors  of  his  successors. 
2 


14     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 


III. 

PALESTRINA  left  a  great  mass  of  compositions, 
all  glowing  with  the  fire  of  genius,  only  part  of 
which  have  been  published.  His  simple  life  was 
devoted  to  musical  labor,  and  passed  without 
romance,  diversion,  or  excitement.  His  works  are 
marked  by  utter  absence  of  contrast  and  color. 
Without  dramatic  movement,  they  are  full  of  mel- 
ody and  majesty,  a  majesty  serene,  unruffled  by  the 
slightest  suggestion  of  human  passion.  Voices 
are  now  and  then  used  for  individual  expression, 
but  either  in  unison  or  harmony.  As  in  all  great 
church  music,  the  chorus  is  the  key  of  the  work. 
The  general  judgment  of  musicians  agrees  that 
repose  and  enjoyment  are  more  characteristic  of 
this  music  than  that  of  any  other  master.  The 
choir  of  the  Sistine  chapel,  by  the  inheritance  of 
long-cherished  tradition,  is  the  most  perfect  ex- 
ponent of  the  Palestrina  music.  During  the  an- 
nual performance  of  the  " Improperie "  and  "Lam- 
entations," the  altar  and  walls  are  despoiled  of 
their  pictures  and  ornaments,  and  everything  is 
draped  in  black.  The  cai'dinals  dressed  in  serge, 
no  incense,  no  candles:  the  whole  scene  is  a  strik- 
ing picture  of  trouble  and  desolation.  The  faith- 
ful come  in  two  by  two  and  bow  before  the  cross, 
while  the  sad  music  reverberates  through  the 
chapel  arches.  This  powerful  appeal  to  the  imagi- 
nation, of  course,  lends  greater  power  to  the  musi- 


PALHSTRI.VA.  15 

cal  effect.  But  all  minds  who  have  felt  the  lift 
and  beauty  of  these  compositions  have  acknowl- 
edged how  far  they  soar  above  words  and  creeds, 
and  the  picturesque  framework  of  a  liturgy. 

Mendelssohn,  in  a  letter  to  Zelter  on  the  Pa 
lestrina  music  as  heard  in  the  Sistine  chapel,  says 
that  nothing  could  exceed  the  effect  of  the  blend- 
ing of  the  voices,  the  prolonged  tones  gradually 
mei'ging  from  one  note  and  chord  to  another, 
softly  swelling,  decreasing,  at  last  dying  out. 
"  They  understand,"  he  writes,  "  how  to  bring 
out  and  place  each  trait  in  the  most  delicate  light, 
without  giving  it  undue  prominence  ;  one  chord 
gently  melts  into  another.  The  ceremony  at  the 
same  time  is  solemn  and  imposing  ;  deep  silence 
prevails  in  the  chapel,  only  broken  by  the  reecho- 
ing Greek  '  holy,'  sung  with  unvarying  sweetness 
and  expression."  The  composer  Paer  was  so  im- 
pressed with  the  wonderful  beauty  of  the  music 
and  the  performance,  that  he  exclaimed,  "  This  is 
indeed  divine  music,  such  as  I  have  long  sought 
for,  and  my  imagination  was  never  able  to  realize, 
but  which,  I  knew,  must  exist." 

Palestrina's  versatility  and  genius  enabled  him 
to  lift  ecclesiastical  music  out  of  the  rigidity  and 
frivolity  characterizing  on  either  hand  the  oppos- 
ing ranks  of  those  that  preceded  him,  and  to  era- 
body  the  religious  spirit  in  works  of  the  highest 
art.  He  transposed  the  ecclesiastical  melody 
(canto  fermo)  from  the  tenor  to  the  soprano  (thus 


16     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND  FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

rendering  it  more  intelligible  to  the  ear),  and  cre- 
ated that  glorious  thing  choir  song,  with  its  re- 
fined harmony,  that  noble  music  of  which  his 
works  are  the  models,  and  the  papal  chair  the 
oracle.  No  individual  preeminence  is  ever  al- 
lowed to  disturb  and  weaken  the  ideal  atmo- 
sphere of  the  whole  work.  However  Palestrina's 
successors  have  aimed  to  imitate  his  effects,  they 
have,  with  the  exception  of  Cherubini,  failed  for 
the  most  part ;  for  every  peculiar  genus  of  art  is 
the  result  of  innate  genuine  inspiration,  and  the 
spontaneous  growth  of  the  age  which  produces 
it.  As  a  parent  of  musical  form  he  was  the 
protagonist  of  Italian  music,  both  sacred  and 
secular,  and  left  an  admirable  model,  which  even 
the  new  school  of  opera  so  soon  to  rise  found  it 
necessary  to  follow  in  the  construction  of  har- 
mony. The  splendid  and  often  licentious  music 
of  the  theatre  built  its  most  worthy  effects  on  the 
work  of  the  pious  composer,  who  lived,  labored, 
and  died  in  an  atmosphere  of  almost  anchorite 
sanctity. 

The  great  disciples  of  his  school,  Nannini  and 
Allegri,  continued  his  work,  and  the  splendid 
"  Miserere  "  of  the  latter  was  regarded  as  such  an 
inestimable  treasure  that  no  copy  of  it  was  al- 
lowed to  go  out  of  the  Sistine  chapel,  till  the  in- 
fant prodigy,  Wolfgang  Mozart,  wrote  it  out  from 
the  memory  of  a  single  hearing. 


PICCINI,  PAISIELLO,  AXD  CIMAROSA.  17 


PICCINI,  PAISIELLO,   AND  CIMAROSA. 


Music,  as  speaking  the  language  of  feeling, 
emotion,  and  passion,  found  its  first  full  expansion 
in  the  operatic  form.  There  had  been  attempts  to 
represent  drama  with  chorus,  founded  on  the  an- 
cient Greek  drama,  but  it  was  soon  discovered  that 
dialogue  and  monologue  could  not  be  embodied  in 
choral  forms  without  involving  an  utter  absurdity. 
The  spirit  of  the  renaissance  had  freed  poetry, 
statuary,  and  painting,  from  the  monopolizing 
claims  of  the  church.  Music,  which  had  become 
a  well  equipped  and  developed  science,  could  not 
long  rest  in  a  similar  servitude.  Though  it  is  not 
the  aim  of  the  author  to  discuss  operatic  history, 
a  brief  survey  of  the  progress  of  opera  from  its 
birth  cannot  be  omitted. 

The  oldest  of  the  entertainments  which  ri- 
pened into  Italian  opera  belongs  to  the  last  years 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  was  the  work  of  the 
brilliant  Politian,  known  as  one  of  the  revivalists 
of  Greek  learning  attached  to  the  court  of  Cosmo 
de'  Medici  and  his  son  Lorenzo.  This  was  the 
musical  drama  of  "  Orf  eo."  The  story  was  written 
in  Latin,  and  sung  in  music  principally  choral, 
though  a  few  solo  phrases  were  given  to  the  prin- 
cipal characters.  It  was  performed  at  Rome  with 


18     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

great  magnificence,  and  Vasari  tells  us  that  Peruz- 
zi,  the  decorator  of  the  papal  theatre,  painted  such 
scenery  for  it  that  even  the  great  Titian  was  so 
struck  with  the  vraisemblance  of  the  work  that 
he  was  not  satisfied  until  he  had  touched  the  can- 
vas to  be  sure  of  its  not  being  in  relief.  We  may 
fancy  indeed  that  the  scenery  was  one  great  at- 
traction of  the  representation.  In  spite  of  spas- 
modic encouragement  by  the  more  liberally  mind- 
ed pontiffs,  the  general  weight  of  church  influ- 
ence was  against  the  new  musical  tendency,  and 
the  most  skilled  composers  were  at  first  afraid  to 
devote  their  talents  to  further  its  growth. 

What  musicians  did  not  dare  undertake  out  of 
dread  of  the  thunderbolts  of  the  church,  a  com- 
pany of  literati  at  Florence  commenced  in  1580. 
The  primary  purpose  was  the  revival  of  Greek 
art,  including  music.  This  association,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  Medicean  Academy,  laid  down  the 
rule  that  distinct  individuality  of  expression  in 
music  was  to  be  sought  for.  As  results,  quickly 
came  musical  drama  with  recitative  (modern  form 
of  the  Greek  chorus)  and  solo  melody  for  charac- 
teristic parts  of  the  legend  or  story.  Out  of  this 
beginning  swiftly  grew  the  opera.  Composers  in 
the  new  form  sprung  up  in  various  parts  of  Italy, 
though  Naples,  Venice,  and  Florence  continued 
to  be  its  centres. 

Between  1637  and  1700,  there  were  performed 
three  hundred  operas  at  Venice  alone.  An  ac- 


PICCINT,  FAIS1ELLO,  AXD  CIMAROSA.  19 

count  of  the  performance  of  "  Berenice,"  composed 
by  Domenico  Freschi,  at  Padua,  in  1680,  dwarfs 
all  our  present  ideas  of  spectacular  splendor.  In 
this  opera  there  were  choruses  of  a  hundred  vir- 
gins and  a  hundred  soldiers  ;  a  hundred  horsemen 
in  steel  armor  ;  a  hundred  performers  on  trumpets, 
cornets,  sackbuts,  drums,  flutes,  and  other  instru- 
ments, on  horseback  and  on  foot ;  two  lions  led 
by  two  Turks,  and  two  elephants  led  by  two  In- 
dians ;  Berenice's  triumphal  car  drawn  by  four 
horses,  and  six  other  cars  with  spoils  and  prison- 
ers, drawn  by  twelve  horses.  Among  the  scenes 
in  the  first  act  was  a  vast  plain  with  two  triumph- 
al arches  ;  another  with  pavilions  and  tents  ;  a 
square  prepared  for  the  entrance  of  the  triumphal 
procession,  and  a  forest  for  the  chase.  In  the 
second  act  there  were  the  royal  apartments  of  Be- 
renice's temple  of  vengeance,  a  spacious  court  with 
view  of  the  prison  and  a  covered  way  with  long 
lines  of  chariots.  In  the  third  act  there  were  the 
royal  dressing-room,  the  stables  with  a  hundred 
live  horses,  porticoes  adorned  with  tapestry,  and 
a  great  palace  in  the  perspective.  In  the  course 
of  the  piece  there  were  representations  of  the  hunt- 
ing of  the  boar,  the  stag,  and  the  lions.  The 
whole  concluded  with  a  huge  globe  descending 
from  the  skies,  and  dividing  itself  in  lesser  globes 
of  fire  on  which  stood  allegorical  figures  of  fame, 
honor,  nobility,  virtue,  and  glory.  The  theatri- 
cal manager  had  princes  and  nobles  for  bankers 


20     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

and  assistants,  and  they  lavished  their  treasures 
of  art  and  money  to  make  such  spectacles  as  the 
modern  stagemen  of  London  and  Paris  cannot  ap- 
proach. 

In  Evelyn's  diary  there  is  an  entry  describing 
opera  at  Venice  in  1645.  "This  night,  having 
with  my  lord  Bruce  taken  our  places  before,  we 
went  to  the  opera,  where  comedies  and  other  plays 
are  represented  in  recitative  musiq  by  the  most 
excellent  musicians,  vocal  and  instrumental,  with 
variety  of  scenes  painted  and  contrived  with  no 
lesse  art  of  perspective,  and  machines  for  flying 
in  the  aire,  and  other  wonderful  motions  ;  taken 
together  it  is  one  of  the  most  magnificent  and  ex- 
pensive diversions  the  wit  of  man  can  invent. 
The  history  was  Hercules  in  Lydia.  The  sceanes 
changed  thirteen  times.  The  famous  voices,  Anna 
liencia,  a  Roman  and  reputed  the  best  treble  of 
women  ;  but  there  was  a  Eunuch  who  in  my  opin- 
ion surpassed  her  ;  also  a  Genoise  that  in  my  judg- 
ment sung  an  incomparable  base.  They  held  us 
by  the  eyes  and  ears  till  two  o'clock  i'  the  morn- 
ing." Again  he  writes  of  the  carnival  of  1646  : 
"  The  comedians  have  liberty  and  the  operas  are 
open  ;  witty  pasquils  are  thrown  about,  and  the 
mountebanks  have  their  stages  at  every  corner. 
The  diversion  which  chiefly  took  me  up  was  three 
noble  operas,  where  were  most  excellent  voices  and 
music,  the  most  celebrated  of  which  was  the 
famous  and  beautiful  Anna  Rencia,  whom  we  in- 


PICCIXI,  FAISIELLO,  AND   CIMAROSA.  21 

vited  to  a  fish  dinner  after  four  dales  in  Lent, 
when  they  had  given  over  at  the  theatre."  Old 
Evelyn  then  narrates  how  he  and  his  noble  friend 
took  the  lovely  diner  out  on  a  junketing,  and  got 
shot  at  with  blunderbusses  from  the  gondola  of 
an  infuriated  rival. 

Opera  progressed  toward  a  fixed  status  with  a 
swiftness  hardly  paralleled  in  the  history  of  any 
art.  The  soil  was  rich  and  fully  prepared  for  the 
growth,  and  the  fecund  root,  once  planted,  shot  into 
a  luxuriant  beauty  and  symmetry,  which  nothing 
could  check.  The  Church  wisely  gave  up  its  op- 
position, and  henceforth  there  was  nothing  to  im- 
pede the  progress  of  a  product  which  spread  and 
naturalized  itself  in  England,  France,  and  Ger- 
many. The  inventive  genius  of  Monte verde,  Ca- 
rissimi,  Scarlatti  (the  friend  and  rival  of  Han- 
del), Durante,  and  Leonardo  Leo,  perfected  the 
forms  of  the  opera  nearly  as  we  have  them  to- 
day. A  line  of  brilliant  composers  in  the  school 
of  Durante  and  Leo  brings  us  down  through  Per- 
golesi,  Demi,  Terradiglias,  Jomelli,  Traetta,  Cic- 
cio  di  Majo,  Galuppi,  and  Giuglielmi,  to  the  most 
distinguished  of  the  early  Italian  composers,  Nic- 
colo  Piccini,  who,  mostly  forgotten  in  his  works,  is 
principally  known  to  modern  fame  as  the  rival  of 
the  mighty  Gluck  in  that  art  controversy  which 
shook  Paris  into  such  bitter  factions.  Yet,  over- 
shadowed as  Piccini  was  in  the  greatness  of  his 
rival,  there  can  be  no  question  of  his  desert  as  the 


22     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

most  brilliant  ornament  and  exponent  of  the  early 
operatic  school.  No  greater  honor  could  have  been 
paid  to  him  than  that  he  should  have  been  chosen 
as  their  champion  by  the  Italianissimi  of  his  day 
in  the  battle  royal  with  such  a  giant  as  Gluck,  an 
honor  richly  deserved  by  a  composer  distinguished 
by  multiplicity  and  beauty  of  ideas,  dramatic  in- 
sight, and  ardent  conviction. 

ii. 

NICCOLO  PICCIXI,  who  was  not  less  than  fifty 
years  of  age  when  he  left  Naples  for  the  purpose 
of  outrivaling  Gluck,  was  born  at  Bari,  in  the 
kingdom  of  Naples,  in  1728.  His  father,  also  a 
musician,  had  destined  him  for  holy  orders,  but 
Nature  made  him  an  artist.  His  great  delight 
even  as  a  little  child  was  playing  on  the  harpsi- 
chord, which  he  quickly  learned.  One  day  the 
bishop  of  Bari  heard  him  playing  and  was  amazed 
at  the  power  of  the  little  virtuoso.  "  By  all  means, 
send  him  to  a  conservatory  of  music,"  he  said  to 
the  elder  Piccini.  "  If  the  vocation  of  the  priest- 
hood brings  trials  and  sacrifices,  a  musical  career 
is  not  less  beset  with  obstacles.  Music  demands 
great  perseverance  and  incessant  labor.  It  ex- 
poses one  to  many  chagrins  and  toils." 

By  the  advice  of  the  shrewd  prelate,  the  pre- 
cocious boy  was  placed  at  the  school  of  St.  Ono- 
frio  at  the  age  of  fourteen.  At  first  confided  to 
the  care  of  an  inferior  professor,  he  revolted  from 


PICCIXI,  PAISISLLO,  AXD   CIMAROSA.  23 

the  arid  teachings  of  a  mere  human  machine. 
Obeying  the  dictates  of  his  daring  fancy,  though 
hardly  acquainted  with  the  rudiments  of  compo- 
sition, he  determined  to  compose  a  mass.  The 
news  got  abroad  that  the  little  Niccolo  was  work- 
ing on  a  grand  mass,  and  the  great  Leo,  the  chief 
of  the  conservatory,  sent  for  the  trembling  cul- 
prit. 

"  You  have  written  a  mass  ?  "  he  commenced. 

"  Excuse  me,  sir,  I  could  not  help  it,"  said  the 
timid  boy. 

"  Let  me  see  it." 

Niccolo  brought  him  the  score  and  all  the 
orchestral  parts,  and  Leo  immediately  went  to  the 
concert-room,  assembled  the  orchestra,  and  gave 
them  the  parts.  The  boy  was  ordered  to  take  his 
place  in  front  and  conduct  the  performance,  which 
he  went  through  with  great  agitation. 

"  I  pardon  you  this  time,"  said  the  grave  ma- 
estro, at  the  end  ;  "  but,  if  you  do  such  a  thing 
again,  I  will  punish  you  in  such  a  manner  that 
you  will  remember  it  as  long  as  you  live.  In- 
stead of  studying  the  principles  of  your  art,  you 
give  yourself  up  to  all  the  wildness  of  your  im- 
agination ;  and,  when  you  have  tutored  your  ill- 
regulated  ideas  into  something  like  shape,  you 
produce  what  you  call  a  mass,  and  no  doubt  think 
you  have  produced  a  masterpiece." 

When  the  boy  burst  into  tears  at  this  rebuke, 
Leo  clasped  him  in  his  arms,  told  him  he  had  great 


24     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

talent,  and  after  that  took  him  under  his  special 
instruction.  Leo  was  succeeded  by  Durante,  who 
also  loved  Piccini,  and  looked  forward  to  a  future 
greatness  for  him.  lie  was  wont  to  say  the  oth- 
ers were  his  pupils,  but  Piccini  was  his  son.  After 
twelve  years  spent  in  the  conservatory,  Piccini 
commenced  an  opera.  The  director  of  the  prin- 
cipal Neapolitan  theatre  said  to  Prince  Vinti- 
mille,  who  introduce'd  the  young  musician,  that 
his  work  was  sure  to  be  a  failure. 

"  How  much  can  you  lose  by  his  opera,"  the 
prince  replied,  "supposing  it  be  a  perfect  fias- 
co ?  "  The  manager  named  the  sum. 

"  There  is  the  money,  then,"  replied  Piccini's 
generous  patron,  handing  him  a  purse.  "  If  the 
'  Dorme  Despetose ' "  (the  name  of  the  opera) 
should  fail,  you  may  keep  the  money,  but  other- 
wise return  it  to  me." 

The  friends  of  Lagroscino,  the  favorite  com- 
poser of  the  day,  were  enraged  when  they  heard 
that  the  next  new  work  was  to  be  from  an  ob- 
scure youth,  and  they  determined  to  hiss  the  per- 
formance. So  great,  however,  was  the  delight 
of  the  public  with  the  freshness  and  beauty  of 
Piccini's  music,  that  even  those  who  came  to  con- 
demn remained  to  applaud.  The  reputation  of 
the  composer  went  on  increasing  until  he  became 
the  foremost  name  of  musical  Italy,  for  his  fer- 
tility of  production  was  remarkable  ;  and  he  gave 
the  theatres  a  brilliant  succession  of  comic  and 


PICCINI,  PAISIELLO,  AND  C1MAROSA.  25 

serious  works.  In  1758  he  produced  at  Rome  his 
"  Alessandro  nell'  Indie,"  whose  success  surpassed 
all  that  had  preceded  it,  and  two  years  later  a  still 
finer  masterpiece,  "  La  Buona  Figluola,"  written 
to  a  text  furnished  by  the  poet  Goldoni,  and 
founded  on  the  story  of  Richardson's  "  Pamela." 
This  opera  was  produced  at  every  playhouse  on 
the  Italian  peninsula  in  the  course  of  a  few  years. 

A  pleasant  mot  by  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  is 
worth  preserving  in  this  connection.  Piccini  had 
married  a  beautiful  singer  named  Vicenza  Sibilla, 
and  his  home  was  very  happy.  One  day  the  Ger- 
man prince  visited  Piccini,  and  found  him  rocking 
the  cradle  of  his  youngest  child,  while  the  eldest 
was  tugging  at  the  paternal  coat-tails.  The 
mother,  being  en  deshabille,  ran  away  at  the  sight 
of  a  stranger.  The  duke  excused  himself  for  his 
want  of  ceremony,  and  added,  "  I  am  delighted 
to  see  so  great  a  man  living  in  such  simplicity, 
and  that  the  author  of  '  La  Bonne  Fille '  is  such 
a  good  father."  Piccini's  placid  and  pleasant  life 
was  destined,  however,  to  pass  into  stormy  wa- 
ters. 

His  sway  over  the  stage  and  the  popular  pref- 
erence continued  until  1773,  when  a  clique  of 
envious  rivals  at  Rome  brought  about  his  first 
disaster.  The  composer  was  greatly  disheart- 
ened, and  took  to  his  bed,  for  he  was  ill  alike  in 
mind  and  body.  The  turning-point  in  his  career 
had  come,  and  he  was  to  enter  into  an  arena 


26     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

which  taxed  his  powers  in  a  contest  such  as  he 
had  not  yet  dreamed  of.  His  operas  having  been 
heard  and  admired  in  France,  their  great  reputa- 
tion inspired  the  royal  favorite,  Mme.  du  Barry, 
with  the  hope  of  finding  a  successful  competitor 
to  the  great  German  composer,  patronized  by 
Marie  Antoinette.  Accordingly,  Piccini  was  of- 
fered an  indemnity  of  six  thousand  francs,  and  a 
residence  in  the  hotel  of  the  Neapolitan  ambas- 
sador. When  the  Italian  arrived  in  Paris,  Gluck 
was  in  full  sway,  the  idol  of  the  court  and  pub- 
lic, and  about  to  produce  his  "  Armide." 

Piccini  was  immediately  commissioned  to 
write  a  new  opera,  and  he  applied  to  the  brilliant 
Marmontel  for  a  libretto.  The  poet  rearranged 
one  of  Quinault's  tragedies,  "  Roland,"  and  Pic- 
cini undertook  the  difficult  task  of  composing 
music  to  words  in  a  language  as  yet  unknown  to 
him.  Marmontel  was  his  imwearied  tutor,  and  he 
writes  in  his  "  Memoirs  "  of  his  pleasant  yet  ar- 
duous task  :  "  Line  by  line,  word  by  word,  I  had 
everything  to  explain  ;  and,  when  he  had  laid  hold 
of  the  meaning  of  a  passage,  I  recited  it  to  him, 
marking  the  accent,  the  prosody,  and  the  cadence 
of  the  verses.  He  listened  eagerly,  and  I  had 
the  satisfaction  to  know  that  what  he  heard  was 
carefully  noted.  His  delicate  ear  seized  so  read- 
ily the  accent  of  the  language  and  the  measm-e  of 
the  poetry,  that  in  his  music  he  never  mistook 
them.  It  was  an  inexpressible  pleasure  to  me  to 


FICCIXI,  PAISIELLO,  AXD   CIMAROSA.  27 

see  him  practice  before  my  eyes  an  art  of  which 
before  I  had  no  idea.  His  harmony  was  in  his 
mind.  He  wrote  his  airs  with  the  utmost  rapid- 
ity, and  when  he  had  traced  its  designs,  he  filled 
up  all  the  parts  of  the  score,  distributing  the 
traits  of  harmony  and  melody,  just  as  a  skillful 
painter  would  distribute  on  his  canvas  the  colors, 
lights,  and  shadows  of  his  picture.  When  all 
this  was  done,  he  opened  his  harpsichord,  which  he 
had  been  using  as  his  writing-table  ;  and  then  I 
heard  an  air,  a  duet,  a  chorus,  complete  in  all  its 
parts,  with  a  truth  of  expression,  an  intelligence, 
a  unity  of  design,  a  magic  in  the  harmony,  which 
delighted  both  my  ear  and  my  feelings." 

Piccini's  arrival  in  Paris  had  been  kept  a  close 
secret  while  he  was  working  on  the  new  opera, 
but  Abbe  du  Rollet  ferreted  it  out,  and  acquainted 
Gluck,  which  piece  of  news  the  great  German 
took  with  philosophical  disdain.  Indeed,  he  at- 
tended the  rehearsal  of  "  Roland  ;  "  and  when  his 
rival,  in  despair  over  his  ignorance  of  French  and 
the  stupidity  of  the  orchestra,  threw  down  the 
baton  in  despair,  Gluck  took  it  up,  and  by  his 
magnetic  authority  brought  order  out  of  chaos 
and  restored  tranquillity,  a  help  as  much,  proba- 
bly, the  fruit  of  condescension  and  contempt  as 
of  generosity. 

{Still  Gluck  was  not  easy  in  mind  over  this  in- 
trigue of  his  enemies,  and  wrote  a  bitter  letter, 
which  was  made  public,  and  aggravated  the  war 


•28     GREAT    ITALIAN    AND    FRENCH    COiirOSERb. 

of  public  feeling.  Epigrams  and  accusations  flew 
back  and  forth  like  hailstones.* 

"Do  you  know  that  the  Chevalier  (Gluck's 
title)  has  an  Armida  and  Orlando  in  his  port- 
folio ?  "  said  Abbu  Arnaud  to  a  Piccinist. 

"  But  Piccini  is  also  at  work  on  an  Orlando," 
was  the  retort. 

"  So  much  the  better,"  returned  the  abbe, 
"  for  then  we  shall  have  an  Orlando  and  also  an 
Orlandino,"  was  the  keen  answer. 

The  public  attention  was  stimulated  by  the 
war  of  pamphlets,  lampoons,  and  newspaper  arti- 
cles. Many  of  the  great  literati  were  Piccinists, 
among  them  Marmontel,  La  Harpe,  D'Alembert, 
etc.  Suard  du  Rollet  and  Jean  Jacques  Rous- 
seau fought  in  the  opposite  ranks.  Although  the 
nation  was  trembling  on  the  verge  of  revolution, 
and  the  French  had  just  lost  their  hold  on  the 
East  Indies ;  though  Mirabeau  was  thundering 
in  the  tribune,  and  Jacobin  clubs  were  commen- 
cing their  baleful  work,  soon  to  drench  Paris  in 
blood,  all  factions  and  discords  were  forgotten. 
The  question  was  no  longer,  "  Is  he  a  Jansenist, 
a  Molinist,  an  Encyclopaedist,  a  philosopher,  a 
free-thinker?"  One  question  only  was  thought 
of  :  "Is  he  a  Gluckist  or  Piccinist?"  and  on  the 
answer  often  depended  the  peace  of  families  and 
the  cement  of  long-established  friendships. 

Piccini's  opera  was  a  brilliant  success  with  the 

*  Set  article  on  Gluck  in  "  Great  German  Composers." 


PICCINI,  PAISIELLO,  AND  CIMAROSA.  29 

fickle  Parisians,  though  the  Gluckists  sneered  at 
it  as  pretty  concert  music.  The  retort  was  that 
.  Gluck  had  no  gift  of  melody,  though  they  admit- 
ted he  had  the  advantage  over  his  rival  of  making 
more  noise.  The  poor  Italian  was  so  much  dis- 
tressed by  the  fierce  contest  that  he  and  his  fam- 
ily were  in  despair  on  the  night  of  the  first  repre- 
sentation. He  could  only  say  to  his  weeping  wife 
and  son :  "  Come,  my  children,  this  is  unreason- 
able. Remember  that  we  are  not  among  savages  ; 
we  are  living  with  the  politest  and  kindest  nation 
in  Europe.  If  they  do  not  like  me  as  a  musician, 
they  will  at  all  events  respect  me  as  a  man  and  a 
stranger."  To  do  justice  to  Piccini,  a  mild  and 
timid  man,  he  never  took  part  in  the  controversy, 
and  always  spoke  of  his  opponent  with  profound 
respect  and  admiration. 


in. 

MARIE  ANTOINETTE,  whom  Mme.  du  Barry 
and  her  clique  looked  on  as  Piccini's  enemy,  as- 
tonished both  cabals  by  appointing  Piccini  her 
singing-master,  an  unprofitable  honor,  for  he  re- 
ceived no  pay,  and  was  obliged  to  give  costly 
copies  of  his  compositions  to  the  royal  family. 
He  might  have  quoted  from  the  Latin  poet  in  re- 
gard to  this  favor  from  Marie  Antoinette,  whose 
faction  in  music,  among  other  names,  was  known 

as  the  Greek  party,  "  Timeo  Danaos  et  dona  fe- 
3 


30     GREAT  ITALIAN   AND   FREXCII   COMPOSKHS. 

rentes" *  Beaumarchais,  the  brilliant  author  of 
"  Figaro,"  had  found  the  same  inconvenience 
when  acting  as  court  teacher  to  the  daughters 
of  Louis  XV.  The  French  kings  were  parsi- 
monious except  when  lavishing  money  on  their 
vices. 

The  action  of  the  dauphiness,  however,  paved 
the  way  for  a  reconciliation  between  Piccini  and 
Gluck.  Berton,  the  manager  of  the  opera,  gave  a 
luxurious  banquet,  and  the  musicians,  side  by 
side,  pledged  each  other  in  libations  of  champagne. 
Gluck  got  confidential  in  his  cups.  "  These 
French,"  he  said,  "  are  good  enough  people,  but 
they  make  me  laugh.  They  want  us  to  write 
songs  for  them,  and  they  can't  sing."  In  fact  the 
quarrel  was  not  between  the  musicians  but  their 
adherents.  In  his  own  heart  Piccini  knew  his 
inferiority  to  Gluck. 

De  Vismes,  Berton's  successor,  proposed  that 
both  should  write  operas  on  the  same  subject, 
"  Iphigenia  in  Tauris,"  and  gave  him  a  libretto. 
"  The  French  public  will  have  for  the  first  time," 
he  said,  "  the  pleasure  of  hearing  two  operas  on 
the  same  theme,  with  the  same  incidents,  the 
same  characters,  but  composed  by  two  great  mas- 
ters of  totally  different  schools." 

"  But,"  objected  the  alarmed  Italian,  "  if 
Gluck's  opera  is  played  first,  the  public  will  be  so 
delighted  that  they  will  not  listen  to  mine." 

*  I  fear  the  Greeka,  though  offering  gifts. 


PICCI.M,  PAISIELLO,  AND  CIMAROSA.  31 

"  To  avoid  that  catastrophe,"  said  the  director, 
"  we  will  play  yours  first." 

"  But  Gluck  will  not  permit  it." 

"I  give  you  my  word  of  honor,"  said  De 
Vismes,  "  that  your  opera  shall  be  put  in  rehear- 
sal and  brought  out  as  soon  as  it  is  finished." 

Before  Piccini  had  finished  his  opera,  he  heard 
that  his  rival  was  back  from  Germany  with  his 
"Iphigenia"  completed,  and  that  it  was  in  re- 
hearsal. The  director  excused  himself  on  the 
plea  of  its  being  a  royal  command.  Gluck's  work 
was  his  masterpiece,  and  produced  an  unparal- 
leled sensation  among  the  Parisians.  Even  his 
enemies  were  silenced,  and  La  Harpe  said  it  was 
the  chef  d'ceuvre  of  the  world.  Piccini's  work, 
when  produced,  was  admired,  but  it  stood  no 
chance  with  the  profound,  serious,  and  wonder- 
fully dramatic  composition  of  his  rival. 

On  the  night  of  the  first  performance  Mile. 
Laguerre,  to  whom  Piccini  had  trusted  the  role 
of  Iphigenia,  could  not  stand  straight  from  in- 
toxication. "  This  is  not  '  Iphigenia  in  Tauris,' 
said  the  witty  Sophie  Arnould,  "  but  '  Iphigenia 
in  champagne.'"  She  compensated  afterward 
though  by  singing  the  part  with  exquisite  effect. 

While  the  Gluck- Piccini  battle  was  at  its 
height,  an  amateur  who  was  disgusted  with  the 
contest  returned  to  the  country  and  sang  the 
praises  of  the  birds  and  their  gratuitous  perform- 
ances in  the  following  epigram  : 


32     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

"  La  n'est  point  d'art,  d'cnnui  scientifique  ; 
Piccini,  Gluck,  n'ont  point  not6  les  airs. 
Nature  seule  en  dicta  la  musique, 
Et  Marmontel  n'cn  a  pas  fait  les  vers." 

The  sentiment  of  this  was  probably  applauded 
by  the  many  who  were  wearied  of  the  bitter  re- 
criminations, which  degraded  the  art  which  they 
professed  to  serve. 

During  the  period  when  Gluck  and  Piccini 
were  composing  for  the  French  opera,  its  affairs 
flourished  liberally  under  the  sway  of  De  Vismes. 
Gluck,  Piccini,  and  Rameau  wrote  serious  operas, 
while  Piccini,  Sacchini,  Anfossi,  and  Paisiello 
composed  comic  operas.  The  ballet  flourished 
with  unsurpassed  splendor,  and  on  the  whole  it 
may  be  said  that  never  has  the  opera  presented 
more  magnificence  at  Paris  than  during  the  lime 
France  was  on  the  eve  of  the  Reign  of  Terror. 
The  gay  capital  was  thronged  with  great  singers, 
the  traditions  of  whose  artistic  ability  compare 
favorably  with  those  of  a  more  recent  period. 

The  witty  and  beautiful  Sophie  Arnould,  who 
had  a  train  of  princes  at  her  feet,  was  the  princi- 
pal exponent  of  Gluck's  heroines,  while  Mile.  La- 
guerre  was  the  mainstay  of  the  Piccinists.  The 
rival  factions  made  the  names  of  these  charming 
and  capricious  women  their  war-cries  not  less  than 
those  of  the  composers.  The  public  bowed  and 
cringed  before  these  idols  of  the  stage.  Gaetan 
Vestris,  the  first  of  the  family,  known  as  the 


PICCLVI,  PAISIELLO,  AND  CIMAROSA.  33 

"  Dieu  tie  la  Danse"  and  who  held  that  there 
were  only  three  great  men  in  Europe,  Frederick 
the  Great  of  Prussia,  Voltaire,  and  himself,  dared 
to  dictate  even  to  Gluck.  "  Write  me  the  music 
of  a  chaconne,  Monsieur  Gluck,"  said  the  god  of 
dancing. 

"  A  chaconne  ! "  said  the  enraged  composer. 
"  Do  you  think  the  Greeks,  whose  manners  we  are 
endeavoring  to  depict,  knew  what  a  chaconne 
was?" 

"Did  they  not?"  replied  Vestris,  astonished 
at  this  news,  and  in  a  tone  of  compassion  con- 
tinued, "  then  they  are  much  to  be  pitied." 

Vestris  did  not  obtain  his  ballet  music  from 
the  obdurate  German  ;  but,  when  Piccini's  rival 
"  Iphigenie  en  Tauride  "  was  produced,  such  beau- 
tiful dance  measures  were  furnished  by  the  Ital- 
ian composer  as  gave  Vestris  the  opportunity  for 
one  of  his  greatest  triumphs. 

IV. 

THE  contest  between  Gluck  and  Piccini,  or 
rather  the  cabals  who  adopted  the  two  musicians 
as  their  figure-heads,  was  brought  to  an  end  by 
the  death  of  the  former.  An  attempt  was  made 
to  set  up  Sacchini  in  his  place,  but  it  proved  un- 
availing, as  the  new  composer  proved  to  be  quite 
as  much  a  follower  of  the  prevailing  Italian  method 
as  of  the  new  school  of  Gluck.  The  French 
revolution  swept  away  Piccini's  property,  and  he 


34     GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

retired  to  Italy.  Bad  fortune  pursued  him,  how- 
ever. Queen  Caroline  of  Naples  conceived  a  dis- 
like to  him  and  used  her  influence  to  injure  his 
career,  out  of  a  fit  of  wounded  vanity. 

"  Do  you  not  think  I  remember  my  sister, 
Marie  Antoinette?"  queried  the  somewhat  ill- 
favored  queen.  Piccini,  embarrassed  but  truthful, 
replied  :  "  Your  majesty,  there  may  be  a  family 
likeness,  but  no  resemblance."  A  fatality  attended 
him  even  to  Venice.  In  1792  he  was  mobbed  and 
his  house  burned,  because  the  populace  regarded ' 
him  as  a  republican,  for  he  had  a  French  son-in- 
law.  Some  partial  musical  successes,  however, 
consoled  him,  though  they  flattered  his  amour 
propre  more  than  they  benefited  his  purse.  On 
his  return  to  Naples  he  was  subjected  to  a  species 
of  imprisonment  during  four  years,  for  royal  dis- 
pleasure in  those  days  did  not  confine  itself  mere- 
ly to  lack  of  court  favor.  Reduced  to  great  pov- 
erty, the  composer  who  had  been  the  favorite  of 
the  rich  and  great  for  so  many  years  knew  often 
the  actual  pangs  of  hunger,  and  eked  out  his  sub- 
sistence by  writing  conventual  psalms,  as  payment 
for  the  broken  food  doled  out  by  the  monks. 

At  last  he  was  released,  and  the  tenor,  David, 
sent  him  funds  to  pay  his  journey  to  Paris.  Na- 
poleon, the  first  consul,  received  him  cordially  in 
the  Luxembourg  palace. 

"  Sit  down,"  said  he  to  Piccini,  who  remained 
standing,  "  a  man  of  your  greatness  stands  in  no 


PICCINI,  PAISIELLO,  AND  CIMAROSA.  35 

one's  presence."  His  reception  in  Paris  was,  in 
fact,  an  ovation.  The  manager  of  the  opera  gave 
him  a  pension  of  twenty-four  hundred  francs,  a 
government  pension  was  also  accorded,  and  he 
was  appointed  sixth  inspector  at  the  Conservatory. 
But  the  benefits  of  this  pale  gleam  of  wintry  sun- 
shine did  not  long  remain.  He  died  at  Passy  in 
the  year  1800,  and  was  followed  to  the  grave  by 
a  great  throng  of  those  who  loved  his  beautiful 
music  and  admired  his  gentle  life. 

In  the  present  day  Gluck  appears  to  have  van- 
quished Piccini,  because  occasionally  an  opera  of 
the  former  is  performed,  while  Piccini's  works  are 
only  known  to  the  musical  antiquarian.  But  even 
the  marble  temples  of  Gluck  are  moss-grown  and 
neglected,  and  that  great  man  is  known  to  the  pres- 
ent day  rather  as  one  whose  influence  profoundly 
colored  and  changed  the  philosophy  of  opera, 
than  through  any  immediate  acquaintance  with 
his  productions.  The  connoisseurs  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  found  Piccini's  melodies  charming, 
but  the  works  that  endure  as  masterpieces  are  not 
those  which  contain  the  greatest  number  of  beau- 
ties, but  those  of  which  the  form  is  the  most  per- 
fect. Gluck  had  larger  conceptions  and  more 
powerful  genius  than  his  Italian  rival,  but  the 
hitter's  sweet  spring  of  melody  gave  him  the  high- 
est place  which  had  so  far  been  attained  in  the 
Italian  operatic  school. 

"Piccini,"  says  M.  Genguene,  his  biographer, 


36     GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

"  was  under  the  middle  size,  but  well  made,  with 
considerable  dignity  of  carriage.  His  countenance 
wras  very  agreeable.  His  mind  was  acute,  en- 
larged, and  cultivated.  Latin  and  Italian  litera- 
ture was  familiar  to  him  when  he  went  to  France, 
and  afterward  he  became  almost  as  well  acquainted 
with  French  literature.  He  spoke  and  wrote  Ital- 
ian with  great  purity,  but  among  his  countrymen 
he  preferred  the  Neapolitan  dialect,  which  he  con- 
sidered the  most  expressive,  the  most  difficult  and 
the  most  figurative  of  all  languages.  He  used  it 
principally  in  narration,  with  a  gayety,  a  truth,  and 
a  pantomimic  expression  after  the  manner  of  his 
country,  which  delighted  all  his  friends,  and  made 
his  stories  intelligible  even  to  those  who  knew 
Italian  but  slightly." 

As  a  musician  Piccini  wras  noticeable,  accord- 
ing to  the  judgment  of  his  best  critics,  for  the 
purity  and  simplicity  of  his  style.  He  always, 
wished  to  preserve  the  supremacy  of  the  voice, 
and,  though  he  well  knew  how  to  make  his  instru- 
mentation rich  and  effective,  he  was  a  resolute 
opponent  to  the  florid  and  complex  accompani- 
ments which  were  coming  into  vogue  in  his  day. 
His  recorded  opinion  on  this  subject  may  have 
some  interest  for  the  musicians  of  the  present  day  : 

"  Were  the  employment  which  Nature  herself 
assigns  to  the  instruments  of  an  orchestra  pre- 
served to  them,  a  variety  of  effects  and  a  series 
of  infinitely  diversified  pictures  would  be  pro- 


PICCIXI,  PAISIELLO,  AND  CIMAROSA.  37 

duced.  But  they  are  all  thrown  in  at  once  and 
used  incessantly,  and  they  thus  overpower  and 
indurate  the  ear,  without  presenting  any  picture 
to  the  mind,  to  which  the  ear  is  the  passage.  I 
should  be  glad  to  know  how  they  will  arouse  it 
when  it  is  accustomed  to  this  uproar,  which  will 
soon  happen,  and  of  what  new  witchcraft  they 
will  avail  themselves  ...  It  is  well  known  what 
occurs  to  palates  blunted  by  the  use  of  spirituous 
liquors.  In  a  few  months  everything  may  be 
learned  which  is  necessary  to  produce  these  ex- 
aggerated effects,  but  it  requires  much  time  and 
study  to  be  able  to  excite  genuine  emotion." 
Piccini  followed  strictly  the  canons  of  the  Italian 
school  ;  and,  though  far  inferior  in  really  great 
qualities  to  his  rival  Gluck,  his  compositions  had 
in  them  so  much  of  fluent  grace  and  beauty  as  to 
place  him  at  the  head  of  his  predecessors.  Some 
curious  critics  have  indeed  gone  so  far  as  to 
charge  that  many  of  the  finest  arias  of  Rossini, 
Donizetti,  and  Bellini  owe  their  paternity  to 
this  composer,  an  indictment  not  uncommon  in 
music,  for  most  of  the  great  composers  have  rifled 
the  sweets  of  their  predecessors  without  scruple. 

v. 

PAISIELLO  and  Cimarosa,  in  their  style  and 
processes  of  work,  seem  to  have  more  nearly 
caught  the  mantle  of  Piccini  than  any  others, 
though  they  were  contemporaries  as  well  as  sue- 


38     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

cessors.  Giovanni  Paisiello,  born  in  1741,  was 
educated,  like  many  other  great  musicians,  at  the 
conservatory  of  San  Onofrio.  During  his  early 
life  he  produced  a  great  number  of  pieces  for  the 
Italian  theatres,  and  in  1776  accepted  the  invita- 
tion of  Catherine  to  became  the  court  composer 
at  St.  Petersburgh,  where  he  remained  nine  years 
and  produced  several  of  his  best  operas,  chief 
among  them,  "  II  Barbiere  di  Seviglia  "  (a  differ- 
ent version  of  Beaumarchais's  celebrated  comedy 
from  that  afterward  used  by  Rossini. 

The  empress  was  devotedly  attached  to  him 
and  showed  her  esteem  in  many  signal  ways. 
On  one  occasion,  while  Paisiello  was  accompany- 
ing her  in  a  song,  she  observed  that  he  shud- 
dered with  the  bitter  cold.  On  this  Catherine 
took  off  her  splendid  ermine  cloak,  decorated 
with  clasps  of  brilliants,  and  threw  it  over  her 
tutor's  shoulders.  In  a  quarrel  which  Paisiello 
had  with  Marshal  Beloseloky,  the  temporary  fa- 
vorite of  the  Russian  Messalina,  her  favor  was 
shown  in  a  still  more  striking  way.  The  marshal 
had  given  the  musician  a  blow,  on  which  Paisiello, 
a  very  large,  athletic  man,  drubbed  the  Russian 
general  most  unmercifully.  The  latter  demanded 
the  immediate  dismissal  of  the  composer  for  hav- 
ing insulted  a  dignitary  of  the  empire.  Cath- 
erine's reply  was  similar  to  the  one  made  by 
Francis  the  First  of  France  in  a  parallel  case 
about  Leonardo  da  Vinci  : 


PICCINI,  PAISIELLO,  AND   CIMAROSA.  39 

"  I  neither  can  nor  will  attend  to  your  request ; 
you  forgot  your  dignity  when  you  gave  an  un- 
offending man  and  a  great  artist  a  blow.  Are 
you  surprised  that  he  should  have  forgotten  it 
too  ?  As  for  rank,  it  is  in  my  power  to  make  fifty 
marshals,  but  not  one  Paisiello." 

Some  years  after  his  return  to  Italy,  he  was 
engaged  by  Napoleon  as  chapel-master  ;  for  that 
despot  ruled  the  art  and  literature  of  his  times 
as  autocratically  as  their  politics.  Though  Pai- 
siello did  not  wish  to  obey  the  mandate,  to  re- 
fuse was  ruin.  The  French  ruler  had  already 
shown  his  favor  by  giving  him  the  preference  over 
Cherubini  in  several  important  musical  contests, 
for  the  latter  had  always  displayed  stern  inde- 
pendence of  courtly  favor.  On  Paisiello's  ar- 
rival in  Paris,  several  lucrative  appointments  in- 
dicated the  sincerity  of  Napoleon's  intentions. 
The  composer  did  not  hesitate  to  stand  on  his 
rights  as  a  musician  on  all  occasions.  When 
Napoleon  complained  of  the  inefficiency  of  the 
chapel  service,  he  said,  courageously  :  "  I  can't 
blame  people  for  doing  their  duty  carelessly, 
when  they  are  not  justly  paid."  The  cunning 
Italian  knew  how  to  flatter,  though,  when  occa- 
sion served.  He  once  addressed  his  master  as 
"Sire." 

" '  Sire,'  what  do  you  mean  ?  "  answered  the 
first  consul.  "I  am  a  general  and  nothing 
more." 


40     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

"  Well,  General,"  continued  the  composer,  "  I 
have  coine  to  place  myself  at  your  majesty's 
orders." 

"  I  must  really  beg  you,"  rejoined  Napoleon, 
"  not  to  address  me  in  this  manner." 

"  Forgive  me,  General,"  said  Paisiello.  "  But 
I  cannot  give  up  the  habit  I  have  contracted  in 
addressing  sovereigns,  who,  compared  with  you, 
are  but  pigmies.  However,  I  will  not  forget  your 
commands,  and,  if  I  have  been  unfortunate  enough 
to  offend,  I  must  throw  myself  on  your  majesty's 
indulgence." 

Paisiello  received  ten  thousand  francs  for  the 
mass  written  for  Napoleon's  coronation,  and  one 
thousand  for  all  others.  As  he  produced  masses 
with  great  rapidity,  he  could  very  well  afford  to 
neglect  operatic  writing  during  this  period.  His 
masses  were  pasticcio  work  made  up  of  pieces 
selected  from  his  operas  and  other  compositions. 
This  could  be  easily  done,  for  music  is  arbitrary 
in  its  associations.  Love  songs  of  a  passionate 
and  sentimental  cast  were  quickly  made  religious 
by  suitable  words.  Thus  the  same  melody  will 
depict  equally  well  the  rage  of  a  baffled  conspira- 
tor, the  jealousy  of  an  injured  husband,  the  grief 
of  lovers  about  to  part,  the  despondency  of  a  man 
bent  on  suicide,  the  devotion  of  the  nun,  or  the 
rapt  adoration  of  worship.  A  different  text  and 
a  slight  change  in  time  effect  the  marvel,  and 
hardly  a  composer  hag  disdained  to  borrow  from 


PICCIXL  PAI3IELLO,  AND  CIMAROSA.  41 

one  work  to  enrich  another.  His  only  opera  com- 
posed in  Paris,  "  Proserpine,"  was  not  successful. 

Failure  of  health  obliged  Paisiello  to  return 
to  Naples,  when  he  again  entered  the  service  of 
the  king.  Attached  to  the  fortunes  of  the  Bona- 
parte family,  his  prosperity  fell  with  theirs.  He 
had  been  crowned  with  honors  by  all  the  musical 
societies  of  the  world,  but  his  pensions  and  emol- 
uments ceased  with  the  fall  of  Joachim  Murat 
from  the  Neapolitan  throne.  He  died  June  5, 1816, 
and  the  court,  which  neglected  him  living,  gave 
him  a  magnificent  funeral. 

"  Paisiello,"  says  the  Chevalier  Le  Sueur,  "  was 
not  only  a  great  musician,  but  possessed  a  large 
fund  of  general  information.  He  was  well  versed 
in  the  dead  languages,  acquainted  with  all  branches 
of  literature,  and  on  terms  of  friendship  with  the 
most  distinguished  persons  of  the  age.  His  mind 
was  noble  and  above  all  mean  passions;  he  neither 
knew  envy  nor  the  feeling  of  rivalry.  .  .  .  He 
composed,"  says  the  same  writer,  "  seventy-eight 
operas,  of  which  twenty-seven  were  serious,  and 
fifty-one  comic,  eight  intermezzi,  and  an  immense 
number  of  cantatas,  oratorios,  masses,  etc.  ;  seven 
symphonies  for  King  Joseph  of  Spain,  and  many 
miscellaneous  pieces  for  the  court  of  Russia.'1 

Paisiello's  style,  according  to  Fetis,  was  char- 
acterized by  great  simplicity  and  apparent  facility. 
His  few  and  unadorned  notes,  full  of  grace,  were 
yet  deep  and  varied  in  their  expression.  In  his 


42     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

simplicity  was  the  proof  of  his  abundance.  It  was 
not  necessary  for  him  to  have  recourse  to  musical 
artifice  and  complication  to  conceal  poverty  of 
invention.  His  accompaniments  were  similar  in 
character,  clear  and  picturesque,  without  pretense 
of  elaboration.  The  latter  not  only  relieved  and 
sustained  the  voice,  but  were  full  of  original  ef- 
fects, novel  to  his  time.  He  was  the  author,  too, 
of  important  improvements  in  instrumental  com- 
position. He  introduced  the  viola,  clarinet,  and 
bassoon  into  the  orchestra  of  the  Italian  opera. 
Though  voluminous  both  in  serious  and  comic 
opera,  it  was  in  the  latter  that  he  won  his  chief 
laurels.  His  "  Pazza  per  Amore  "  was  one  of  the 
great  Pasta's  favorites,  and  Catalani  added  largely 
to  her  reputation  in  the  part  of  La  Frascatana, 
Several  of  Paisiello's  comic  operas  still  keep  a 
dramatic  place  on  the  German  stage,  where  excel- 
lence is  not  sacrificed  to  novelty. 

VI. 

A  STILL  higher  place  must  be  assigned  to  an- 
other disciple  and  follower  of  the  school  perfected 
by  Piccini,  Dominic  Cimarosa,  born  in  Naples  in 
1754.  His  life  down  to  his  latter  years  was  an 
uninterrupted  flow  of  prosperity.  His  mother, 
an  humble  washerwomen,  could  do  little  for  her 
fatherless  child,  but  an  observant  priest  saw  the 
promise  of  the  lad,  and  taught  him  till  he  was  old 
enough  to  enter  the  Conservatory  of  St.  Maria  di 


PICCIXI,  PAKIELLO,  AND  CIMAROSA.  43 

Loretto.  His  early  works  showed  brilliant  inven- 
tion and  imagination,  and  the  young  Cimarosa, 
before  he  left  the  Conservatory,  had  made  himself 
a  good  violinist  and  singer.  He  worked  hard,  dur- 
ing a  musical  apprenticeship  of  many  years,  to  lay 
a  solid  foundation  for  the  fame  which  his  teachers 
prophesied  for  him  from  the  onset.  Like  Paisiello, 
he  was  for  several  years  attached  to  the  court  of 
Catherine  II.  of  Russia.  He  had  already  produced 
a  number  of  pleasing  works,  both  serious  and 
comic,  for  the  Italian  theatres,  and  his  faculty  of 
production  was  equaled  by  the  richness  and  vari- 
ety of  his  scores.  During  a  period  of  four  years 
spent  at  the  imperial  court  of  the  North,  Cimarosa 
produced  nearly  five  hundred  works,  great  and 
small,  and  only  left  the  service  of  his  magnificent 
patroness,  who  was  no  less  passionately  fond  of 
art  than  she  was  great  as  a  ruler  and  dissolute 
as  a  woman,  because  the  severe  climate  affected 
his  health,  for  he  was  a  typical  Italian  in  his  tem- 
perament. 

He  was  arrested  in  his  southward  journey  by 
the  urgent  persuasions  of  the  Emperor  Leopold, 
who  made  him  chapel-master,  with  a  salary  of 
twelve  thousand  florins.  The  taste  for  the  Italian 
school  was  still  paramount  at  the  musical  capital 
of  Austria.  Though  such  composers  as  Haydn, 
Salieri,  and  young  Mozart,  who  had  commenced 
to  be  welcomed  as  an  unexampled  prodigy,  were 
in  Vienna,  the  court  pref erred  the  suave  and  shal- 


44     GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

low  beauties  of  Italian  music  to  their  own  serious 
German  school,  which  was  commencing  to  send 
down  such  deep  roots  into  the  popular  heart. 

Cimarosa  produced  "  II  Matrimonio  Segreto  " 
(The  Secret  Marriage),  his  finest  opera,  for  his  new 
patron.  The  libretto  was  founded  on  a  forgotten 
French  operetta,  which  again  was  adapted  from 
Garrick  and  Colman's  "  Clandestine  Marriage." 
The  emperor  could  not  attend  the  first  representa- 
tion, but  a  brilliant  audience  hailed  it  with  de- 
light. Leopold  made  amends,  though,  on  the 
second  night,  for  he  stood  in  his  box,  and  said, 
aloud : 

"  Bravo,  Cimarosa,  bravissimo  !  The  whole 
opera  is  admirable,  delightful,  enchanting  !  I 
did  not  applaud,  that  I  might  not  lose  a  single 
note  of  this  masterpiece.  You  have  heard  it. 
twice,  and  I  must  have  the  same  pleasure  before 
I  go  to  bed.  Singers  and  musicians  pass  into  the 
next  room.  Cimarosa  will  come,  too,  and  preside 
at  the  banquet  prepared  for  you.  When  you  have 
had  sufficient  rest,  we  will  begin  again.  I  encore 
the  whole  opera,  and  in  the  mean  while  let  us  ap- 
plaud it  as  it  deserves." 

The  emperor  gave  the  signal,  and,  midst  a 
thunderstorm  of  plaudits,  the  musicians  passed 
into  their  midnight  feast.  There  is  no  record 
of  any  other  such  compliment,  except  that  to  the 
Latin  dramatist,  Plautus,  whose  "  Eunuchus  " 
was  performed  twice  on  the  same  day. 


PIOCINI,  PAISIELLO,  AND  CIMAROSA.  45 

Yet  the  same  Viennese  public,  six  years  before, 
had  actually  hissed  Mozart's  "  Nozze  di  Figaro," 
which  shares  with  Rossini's  "  II  Barbiere "  the 
greatest  rank  in  comic  opera,  and  has  retained, 
to  this  day,  its  perennial  freshness  and  interest. 
Cimarosa  himself  did  not  share  the  opinion  of  his 
admirers  in  respect  to  Mozart.  A  certain  Vien- 
nese painter  attempted  to  flatter  him,  by  decry- 
ing Mozart's  music  in  comparison  with  his  own. 
The  following  retort  shows  the  nobility  of  genius  : 
"  I,  sir  ?  What  would  you  call  the  man  who 
would  seek  to  assure  you  that  you  were  superior 
to  Raphael  ?  "  Another  acute  rejoinder,  on  the 
respective  merits  of  Mozart  and  Cimarosa,  was 
made  by  the  French  composer,  Gr6try,  in  answer 
to  a  criticism  by  Napoleon,  when  first  consul,  that 
great  man  affecting  to  be  a  dilettante  in  music  : 

"  Sire,  Cimarosa  puts  the  statue  on  the  theatre 
and  the  pedestal  in  the  orchestra,  instead  of  which 
Mozart  puts  the  statue  in  the  orchestra  and  the 
pedestal  on  the  theatre." 

The  composer's  hitherto  brilliant  career  was 
doomed  to  a  gloomy  close.  On  returning  to  Na- 
ples, at  the  Emperor  Leopold's  death,  Cimarosa 
produced  several  of  his  finest  works,  among  which 
musical  students  place  first :  "  II  Matrimonio  per 
Susurro,"  "La  Penelope,"  " L'Olimpiade,"  "II 
Sacrificio  d'Abramo,"  "  Gli  Amanti  Comici,"  and 
"Gli  Orazi."  These  were  performed  almost  si- 
multaneously in  the  theatres  of  Paris,  Naples, 
4 


46     GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

and  Vienna.  Cimarosa  attached  himself  warmly 
to  the  French  cause  in  Italy,  and  when  the  Bour- 
bons finally  triumphed  the  musician  suffered  their 
bitterest  resentment.  He  narrowly  escaped  with 
his  life,  and  languished  for  a  long  time  in  a  dun- 
geon, so  closely  immured  that  it  was  for  a  long 
time  believed  by  his  friends  that  his  head  had 
fallen  on  the  block. 

At  length  released,  he  quitted  the  Neapolitan 
territory,  only  to  die  at  Venice,  in  a  few  months, 
"  in  consequence,"  Stendhal  says,  in  his  "  Life  of 
Rossini,"  "  of  the  barbarous  treatment  he  had 
met  with  in  the  prison  into  which  he  had  been 
thrown  by  Queen  Caroline."  He  died  January 
11,  1801. 

Cimarosa's  genius  embraced  both  the  tragic 
and  comic  schools  of  composition.  He  may  be 
specially  called  a  genuine  master  of  musical  com- 
edy. He  was  the  finest  example  of  the  school 
perfected  by  Piccini,  and  was  indeed  the  link 
between  the  old  Italian  opera  and  the  new  de- 
velopment of  which  Rossini  is  such  a  brilliant 
exponent.  Schluter,  in  his  "  History  of  Music," 
says  of  him  :  "  Like  Mozart,  he  excels  in  those 
parts  of  an  opera  which  decide  its  merits  as  a 
work  of  art,  the  ensembles  and  finale.  His  admir- 
able, and  by  no  means  antiquated  opera,  4 II 
Matrimonio  Segreto'  (the  charming  offspring  of 
his  *  secret  marriage '  with  the  Mozart  opera)  is 
a  model  of  exquisite  and  graceful  comedy.  The 


PICCIXI,  PAISIELLO,  AND  CIMAROSA.  47 

overture  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  that  of 
'  Figaro,'  and  the  instrumentation  of  the  whole 
opera  is  highly  characteristic,  though  not  so  prom- 
inent as  in  Mozart.  Especially  delightful  are  the 
secret  love-scenes,  written  evidently  con  amore, 
the  composer  having  practised  them  many  a  time 
in  his  youth." 

This  opera  is  still  performed  in  many  parts  of 
Europe  to  delighted  audiences,  and  is  ranked  by 
competent  critics  as  the  third  finest  comic  opera 
extant,  Mozart  and  Rossini  only  surpassing  him 
in  their  masterpieces.  It  was  a  great  favorite 
with  Lablache,  and  its  magnificent  performance 
by  Grisi,  Mario,  Tamburini,  and  the  king  of 
bassos,  is  a  gala  reminiscence  of  English  and 
French  opera-goers. 

We  quote  an  opinion  also  from  another  able 
authority  :  "  The  drama  of  '  Gli  Orazi '  is  taken 
from  Corneille's  tragedy  *  Les  Horaces.'  The 
music  is  full  of  noble  simplicity,  beautiful  mel- 
ody, and  strong  expression.  In  the  airs  dramatic 
truth  is  never  sacrificed  to  vocal  display,  and  the 
concerted  pieces  are  grand,  broad,  and  effective. 
Taken  as  a  whole,  the  piece  is  free  from  anti- 
'{ii.'Ued  and  obsolete  fs.ms  ;  and  it  wants  nothing 
but  an  orchestral  score  of  greater  fullness  and 
variety  to  satisfy  the  modern  ear.  It  is  still  fre- 
quently performed  in  Germany,  though  in  France 
and  England,  and  even  in  its  native  country,  it 
seems  to  be  forgotten." 


48     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

Cardinal  Consalvi,  Cimarosa's  friend,  caused 
splendid  funeral  honors  to  be  paid  to  him  at 
Rome.  Canova  executed  a  marble  bust  of  him, 
which  was  placed  in  the  gallery  of  the  Capitol. 


ROSSINI. 


THE  "  Swan  of  Pesaro  "  is  a  name  linked  with 
some  of  the  most  charming  musical  associations 
of  this  age.  Though  forty  years  silence  made 
fruitless  what  should  have  been  the  richest  crea- 
tive period  of  Rossini's  life,  his  great  works, 
poured  forth  with  such  facility,  and  still  retain- 
ing their  grasp  in  spite  of  all  changes  in  public 
opinion,  stamp  him  as  being  the  most  gifted  com- 
poser ever  produced  by  a  country  so  fecund  in 
musical  geniuses.  The  old  set  forms  of  Italian 
opera  had  already  yielded  in  large  degree  to  the 
energy  and  pomp  of  French  declamation,  when 
Rossini  poured  into  them  afresh  such  exhilaration 
and  sparkle  as  again  placed  his  country  in  the 
van  of  musical  Europe.  With  no  pretension  to 
the  grand,  majestic,  and  severe,  his  fresh  and 
delightful  melodies,  flowing  without  stint,  excited 
alike  the  critical  and  the  unlearned  into  a  species 
of  artistic  craze,  a  mania  which  has  not  yet 


A 


GIOACCHINO  ROSSINI. 


ROPSINI.  49 

subsided.  The  stiff  and  stately  Oublicheff  con- 
fesses, with  many  compunctions  of  conscience, 
that,  when  listening  for  the  first  time  to  one  of 
Rossini's  operas,  he  forgot  for  the  time  being  all 
that  he  had  ever  known,  admired,  played,  or 
sung,  for  he  was  musically  drunk,  as  if  with 
champagne.  Learned  Germans  might  shake  their 
heads  and  talk  about  shallowness  and  contra- 
puntal rubbish,  his  crescendo  and  stretto  passages, 
his  tameness  and  uniformity  even  in  melody,  his 
want  of  artistic  finish  ;  but,  as  Richard  Wagner, 
his  direct  antipodes,  frankly  confesses  in  his 
"  Oper  und  Drama,"  such  objections  were  dis- 
pelled by  Rossini's  opera-airs  as  if  they  were  mere 
delusions  of  the  fancy.  Essentially  different  from 
Beethoven,  Bach,  Mozart,  Haydn,  or  even  Weber, 
with  whom  he  has  some  affinities,  he  stands  a 
unique  figure  in  the  history  of  art,  an  original 
both  as  man  and  musician. 

Gioacchino  Rossini  was  the  son  of  a  town- 
trumpeter  and  an  operatic  singer  of  inferior  rank, 
born  in  Pesaro,  Romagna,  February  29,  1792. 
The  child  attended  the  itinerant  couple  in  their 
visits  to  fairs  and  musical  gatherings,  and  was  in 
danger,  at  the  age  of  seven,  of  becoming  a  thor- 
ough-paced little  vagabond,  when  maternal  alarm 
trusted  his  education  to  the  friendly  hands  of  the 
music-master  Prinetti.  At  this  tender  age  even 
he  had  been  introduced  to  the  world  of  art,  for 
he  sang  the  part  of  a  child  at  the  Bologna  opera. 


50     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENC1I   COMPOSERS. 

"Nothing,"  said  Mme.  Georgi-Righetti,  "could 
be  imagined  more  tender,  more  touching,  than  the 
voice  and  action  of  this  remarkable  child." 

The  young  Rossini,  after  a  year  or  two,  came 
under  the  notice  of  the  celebrated  teacher  Tesei, 
of  Bologna,  who  gave  him  lessons  in  pianoforte 
playing  and  the  voice,  and  obtained  him  a  good 
place  as  boy-soprano  at  one  of  the  churches.  He 
now  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Countess  Per- 
ticari,  who  admired  his  voice,  and  she  sent  him  to 
the  Lyceum  to  learn  fugue  and  counterpoint  at 
the  feet  of  a  very  strict  Gamaliel,  Padre  Mattel. 
The  youth  was  no  dull  student,  and,  in  spite  of 
his  capricious  indolence,  which  vexed  the  soul  of 
his  tutor,  he  made  such  rapid  progress  that  at  the 
age  of  sixteen  he  was  chosen  to  write  the  cantata, 
annually  awarded  to  the  most  promising  student. 
Success  greeted  the  juvenile  effort,  and  thus  we 
see  Rossini  fairly  launched  as  a  composer.  Of 
the  early  operas  which  he  poured  out  for  five 
years  it  is  not  needful  to  speak,  except  that  one 
of  them  so  pleased  the  austere  Marshal  Massena 
that  he  exempted  the  composer  from  conscription. 
The  first  opera  which  made  Rossini's  name  fa- 
mous through  Europe  was  "  Tancredi,"  written  for 
the  Venetian  public.  To  this  opera  belongs  the 
charming  "  Di  tanti  palpiti,"  written  under  the 
following  circumstances  :  Mme.  Melanotte,  the 
prima  donna,  took  the  whim  during  the  final  re- 
hearsal that  she  would  not  sing  the  opening  air, 


ROSSINI.  51 

but  must  have  another.  Rossini  went  home  in 
sore  disgust,  for  the  whole  opera  was  likely  to  be 
put  off  by  this  caprice.  There  were  but  two  hours 
before  the  performance.  He  sat  waiting  for  his 
macaroni,  when  an  exquisite  air  came  into  his 
head,  and  it  was  written  in  five  minutes. 

After  his  great  success  he  received  offers  from 
almost  every  town  in  Italy,  each  clamoring  to  be 
served  first.  Every  manager  was  required  to 
furnish  his  theatre  with  an  opera  from  the  pen  of 
th<.'  new  idol.  For  these  earlier  essays  he  received 
a  thousand  francs  each,  and  he  wrote  five  or  six  a 
year.  Stendhall,  Rossini's  spirited  biographer, 
gives  a  picturesque  account  of  life  in  the  Italian 
theatres  at  this  time,  a  status  which  remains  in 
some  of  its  features  to-day  : 

"  The  mechanism  is  as  follows  :  The  manager 
is  frequently  one  of  the  most  wealthy  and  consid- 
erable persons  of  the  little  town  he  inhabits.  He 
forms  a  company  consisting  of  prima  donna,  te- 
itm-ii,  /Htfitio  cantante,  basso  buffo,  a  second  female 
singer,  and  a  third  basso.  The  libretto,  or  poem, 
is  purchased  for  sixty  or  eighty  francs  from  some 
unlucky  son  of  the  muses,  who  is  generally  a  half- 
starved  abbe,  the  hanger-on  of  some  rich  family 
in  the  neighborhood.  The  character  of  the  para- 
site, so  admirably  painted  by  Terence,  is  still  to 
be  found  in  all  its  glory  in  Lombardy,  where  the 
smallest  town  can  boast  of  some  five  or  six  fami- 
lies of  some  wealth.  A  maestro,  or  composer,  is 


52     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

then  engaged  to  write  a  new  opera,  and  he  is 
obliged  to  adapt  his  own  airs  to  the  voices  and 
capacity  of  the  company.  The  manager  intrusts 
the  care  of  the  financial  department  to  a  regis- 
trar io,  who  is  generally  some  pettifogging  attor- 
ney, who  holds  the  position  of  his  steward.  The 
next  thing  that  generally  happens  is  that  the 
manager  falls  in  love  with  the  prima  donna  ;  and 
the  progress  of  this  important  amour  gives  ample 
employment  to  the  curiosity  of  the  gossips. 

"  The  company  thus  organized  at  length  gives 
its  first  representation,  after  a  month  of  cabals 
and  intrigues,  which  furnish  conversation  for  the 
town.  This  is  an  event  in  the  simple  annals  of 
the  town,  of  the  importance  of  which  the  residents 
of  large  places  can  form  no  idea.  During  months 
together  a  population  of  eight  or  ten  thousand 
people  do  nothing  but  discuss  the  merit  of  the 
forthcoming  music  and  singers  with  the  eager 
impetuosity  which  belongs  to  the  Italian  charac- 
ter and  climate.  The  first  representation,  if  suc- 
cessful, is  generally  followed  by  twenty  or  thirty 
more  of  the  same  piece,  after  which  the  company 
breaks  up.  .  .  .  From  this  little  sketch  of  theatrical 
arrangements  in  Italy  some  idea  may  be  formed 
of  the  life  which  Rossini  led  from  1810  to  1816." 
Between  these  years  he  visited  all  the  principal 
towns,  remaining  three  or  four  months  at  each, 
the  idolized  guest  of  the  dilettanti  of  the  place. 
Rossini's  idleness  and  love  of  good  cheer  always 


ROSSINI.  53 

made  him  procrastinate  his  labors  till  the  last 
moment,  and  placed  him  in  dilemmas  from  which 
only  his  fluency  of  composition  extricated  him. 
His  biographer  says : 

"  The  day  of  performance  is  fast  approaching, 
and  yet  he  cannot  resist  the  pressing  invitations 
of  these  friends  to  dine  with  them  at  the  tavern. 
This,  of  course,  leads  to  a  supper,  the  champagne 
circulates  freely,  and  the  hour  of  morning  steals 
on  apace.  At  length  a  compunctious  visiting 
shoots  across  the  mind  of  the  truant  composer. 
He  rises  abruptly  ;  his  friends  insist  on  seeing 
him  home  ;  and  they  parade  the  silent  streets 
bareheaded,  shouting  in  chorus  whatever  comes 
uppermost,  perhaps  a  portion  of  a  miserere,  to  the 
great  scandal  of  pious  Catholics  tucked  snugly  in 
their  beds.  At  length  he  reaches  his  lodging,  and 
shutting  himself  up  in  his  chamber  is,  at  this,  to 
every-day  mortals,  most  ungenial  hour,  visited  by 
some  of  his  most  brilliant  inspirations.  These  he 
hastily  scratches  down  on  scraps  of  paper,  and 
next  morning  arranges  them,  or,  in  his  own  phrase, 
instruments  them,  amid  the  renewed  interruptions 
of  his  visitors.  At  length  the  important  night 
arrives.  The  maestro  takes  his  place  at  the  piano- 
forte. The  theatre  is  overflowing,  people  having 
flocked  to  the  town  from  ten  leagues  distance. 
Every  inn  is  crowded,  and  those  unable  to  get 
other  accommodations  encamp  around  the  theatre 
in  their  various  vehicles.  All  business  is  sus- 


54     GREAT   ITALIAX   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

penciled,  and,  during  the  performances,  the  town 
has  the  appearance  of  a  desert.  The  passions,  the 
anxieties,  the  very  life  of  a  whole  population  are 
centered  in  the  theatre." 

Rossini  would  preside  at  the  first  three  repre- 
sentations, and,  after  receiving  a  grand  civic  ban- 
quet, set  out  for  the  next  place,  his  portmanteau 
fuller  of  music-paper  than  of  other  effects,  and 
perhaps  a  dozen  sequins  in  his  pocket.  His  love 
of  jesting  during  these  gay  Bohemian  wanderings 
made  him  perpetrate  innumerable  practical  jokes, 
not  sparing  himself  when  he  had  no  more  avail- 
able food  for  mirth.  On  one  occasion,  in  travel- 
ing from  Aneona  to  Reggio,  he  passed  himself  off 
for  a  musical  professor,  a  mortal  enemy  of  Ros- 
sini, and  sang  the  words  of  his  own  operas  to  the 
most  execrable  music,  in  a  cracked  voice,  to  show 
his  superiority  to  that  donkey,  Rossini.  An  un- 
known admirer  of  his  was  in  such  a  rage  that  he 
was  on  the  point  of  chastising  him  for  slandering 
the  great  musician,  about  whom  Italy  raved. 

Our  composer's  earlier  style  was  quite  simple 
and  unadorned,  a  fact  difficult  for  the  present 
generation,  only  acquainted  with  the  florid  beau- 
ties of  his  later  works,  to  appreciate.  Rossini 
only  followed  the  traditions  of  Italian  music  in 
giving  singers  full  opportunity  to  embroider  the 
naked  score  at  their  own  pleasure.  He  was  led 
to  change  this  practice  by  the  following  incident. 
The  tenor-singer  Velluti  was  then  the  favorite  of 


ROSSINI.  55 

the  Italian  theatres,  and  indulged  in  the  most  un- 
warrantable tricks  with  his  composers.  During 
the  first  performance  of  "  L'Aureliano,"  at  Naples, 
the  singer  loaded  the  music  with  such  ornaments 
that  Rossini  could  not  recognize  the  offspring  of 
his  own  brains.  A  fierce  quarrel  ensued  between 
the  two,  and  the  composer  determined  thereafter 
to  write  music  of  such  a  character  that  the  most 
stupid  singer  could  not  suppose  any  adornment 
needed.  From  that  time  the  Rossini  music  was 
marked  by  its  florid  and  brilliant  embroidery. 
Of  the  same  Velluti,  spoken  of  above,  an  incident 
is  told,  illustrating  the  musical  craze  of  the  coun- 
try and  the  period.  A  Milanese  gentleman,  whose 
father  was  very  ill,  met  his  friend  in  the  street — 
"  Where  are  you  going  ?  "  "  To  the  Scala  to  be 
sure."  "  How  !  your  father  lies  at  the  point  of 
death."  "  Yes  !  yes  !  I  know,  but  Velluti  sings 
to-night." 

ii. 

AN  important  step  in  Rossini's  early  career 
was  his  connection  with  the  widely  known  im-j 
presario  of  the  San  Carlo,  Naples,  Barbaja.  He 
was  under  contract  to  produce  two  new  operas 
annually,  to  rearrange  ail  old  scores,  and  to  con- 
duct at  all  of  the  theatres  ruled  by  this  manager. 
He  was  to  receive  two  hundred  ducats  a  month, 
and  a  share  in  the  profits  of  the  bank  of  the  San 
Carlo  gambling-saloon.  His  first  opera  composed 
here  was  "  Elisabetta,  Regina  d'Inghilterra,"  which 


56     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS, 

was  received  with  a  genuine  Neapolitan  furore. 
Rossini  was  feted  and  caressed  by  the  ardent  di- 
lettanti of  this  city  to  his  heart's  content,  and  was 
such  an  idol  of  the  "  fickle  fair  "  that  his  career 
on  more  than  one  occasion  narrowly  escaped  an 
untimely  close,  from  the  prejudice  of  jealous 
spouses.  The  composer  was  very  vain  of  his 
handsome  person,  and  boasted  of  his  escapades 
cFamour.  Many,  too,  will  recall  his  mot,  spoken 
to  a  beauty  standing  between  himself  and  the 
Duke  of  Wellington:  "Madame,  how  happy 
should  you  be  to  find  yourself  placed  between 
the  two  greatest  men  in  Europe  !  " 

One  of  Rossini's  adventures  at  Naples  has  in 
it  something  of  romance.  He  was  sitting  in  his 
chamber,  humming  one  of  his  own  operatic  airs, 
wThen  the  ugliest  Mercury  he  had  ever  seen  en- 
tered and  gave  him  a  note,  then  instantly  with- 
drew. This,  of  course,  was  a  tender  invitation, 
and  an  assignation  at  a  romantic  spot  in  the 
suburb.  On  arriving  Rossini  sang  his  aria  for  a 
signal,  and  from  the  gate  of  a  charming  park  sur- 
rounding a  small  villa  appeared  his  beautiful  and 
unknown  inamorata.  On  parting  it  was  agreed 
that  the  same  messenger  should  bring  notice  of 
the  second  appointment.  Rossini  suspected  that 
the  lady,  in  disguise,  was  her  own  envoy,  and 
verified  the  guess  by  following  the  light-footed 
page.  He  then  discovered  that  she  was  the  wife 
of  a  wealthy  Sicilian,  widely  noted  for  her  beauty, 


ROSSINI.  57 

and  one  of  the  reigning  toasts.  On  renewing  his 
visit,  he  had  barely  arrived  at  the  gate  of  the 
park,  when  a  carbine-bullet  grazed  his  head,  and 
two  masked  assailants  sprang  toward  him  with 
drawn  rapiers,  a  proceeding  which  left  Rossini  no 
option  but  to  take  to  his  heels,  as  he  was  unarmed. 

During  the  composer's  residence  at  Naples 
he  was  made  acquainted  with  many  of  the  most 
powerful  princes  and  nobles  of  Europe,  and  his 
name  became  a  recognized  factor  in  European 
music,  though  his  works  were  not  widely  known 
outside  of  his  native  land.  His  reputation  for 
genius  spread  by  report,  for  all  who  came  in  con- 
tact with  the  brilliant,  handsome  Rossini  were 
charmed.  That  which  placed  his  European  fame 
on  a  solid  basis  was  the  production  of  "  II  Bar- 
biere  di  Seviglia  "  at  Rome  during  the  carnival 
season  of  1816. 

Years  before  Rossini  had  thought  of  setting 
the  sparkling  comedy  of  Beaumarchais  to  mu- 
sic, and  Sterbini,  the  author  of  the  libretto  used  by 
Paisiello,  had  proposed  to  rearrange  the  story. 
Rossini,  indeed,  had  been  so  complaisant  as  to 
write  to  the  older  composer  for  permission  to  set 
fresh  music  to  the  comedy ;  a  concession  not 
needed,  for  the  plays  of  Metastasio  had  been  used 
l»y  different  musicians  without  scruple.  Paisiello 
intrigued  against  the  new  opera,  and  organized  a 
conspiracy  to  kill  it  on  the  first  night.  Sterbini 
made  the  libretto  totally  different  from  the  other, 


58     GREAT   ITALIAN"   AXD   FREXCtI   COMPOSERS. 

and  Rossini  finished  the  music  in  thirteen  days, 
during  which  he  never  left  the  house.  "  Not 
even  did  I  get  shaved,"  he  said  to  a  friend.  "  It 
seems  strange  that  through  the  '  Barber '  you 
should  have  gone  without  shaving."  "  If  I  had 
shaved,"  Rossini  explained,  "  I  should  have  gone 
out ;  and,  if  I  had  gone  out,  I  should  not  have 
come  back  in  time." 

The  first  performance  was  a  curious  scene. 
The  Argentina  Theatre  was  packed  with  friends 
and  foes.  One  of  the  greatest  of  tenors,  Garcia, 
the  father  of  Malibran  and  Pauline  Viardot,  sang 
Almaviva.  Rossini  had  been  weak  enough  to  al- 
low Garcia  to  sing  a  Spanish  melody  for  a  sere- 
nade, for  the  latter  urged  the  necessity  of  vivid 
national  and  local  color.  The  tenor  had  forgotten 
to  tune  his  guitar,  and  in  the  operation  on  the 
stage  a  string  broke.  This  gave  the  signal  for  a 
tumult  of  ironical  laughter  and  hisses.  The  same 
hostile  atmosphere  continued  during  the  evening. 
Even  Madame  Georgi-Righetti,  a  great  favorite 
of  the  Romans,  was  coldly  received  by  the  audi- 
ence. In  short,  the  opera  seemed  likely  to  be 
damned. 

When  the  singers  went  to  condole  with  Ros- 
sini, they  found  him  enjoying  a  luxurious  supper 
with  the  gusto  of  the  gourmet  that  he  was.  Set- 
tled in  his  knowledge  that  he  had  written  a  mas- 
terpiece, he  could  not  be  disturbed  by  unjust 
clamor.  The  next  night  the  fickle  Romans  made 


ROSS  I M  59 

ample  amends,  for  the  opera  was  concluded  amid 
the  warmest  applause,  even  from  the  friends  of 
Paisiello. 

Rossini's  "  II  Barbiere,"  within  six  months,  was 
performed  on  nearly  every  stage  in  Europe,  and 
received  universally  with  great  admiration.  It 
was  only  in  Paris,  two  years  afterward,  that  there 
was  some  coldness  in  its  reception.  Every  one 
said  that  after  Paisiello's  music  on  the  same  sub- 
ject it  was  nothing,  when  it  was  suggested  that 
Paisiello's  should  be  revived.  So  the  St.  Peters- 
burg "  Barbiere "  of  1788  was  produced,  and  be- 
side  Rossini's  it  proved  so  dull,  stupid,  and  anti- 
quated that  the  public  instantly  recognized  the 
beauties  of  the  work  which  they  had  persuaded 
themselves  to  ignore.  Yet  for  this  work,  which 
placed  the  reputation  of  the  young  composer  on 
a  lofty  pedestal,  he  received  only  two  thousand 
francs. 

Our  composer  took  his  failures  with  great 
phlegm  and  good  nature,  based,  perhaps,  on  an  in- 
vincible self-confidence.  When  his  "  Sigismonde  " 
had  been  hissed  at  Venice,  he  sent  his  mother  a 
fiasco  (bottle).  In  the  last  instance  he  sent  her, 
on  the  morning  succeeding  the  first  performance, 
a  letter  with  a  picture  of  &fiaschetto  (little  bottle). 

in. 

THE  same  year  (1816)  was  produced  at  Naples 
the  opera  of  "  Otello,"  which  was  an  important 


60     GREAT    ITALIAN    AXD    FREXCII   COMPOSERS. 

point  of  departure  in  the  reforms  introduced  by 
Rossini  on  the  Italian  stage.  Before  speaking 
further  of  this  composer's  career,  it  is  necessary 
to  admit  that  every  valuable  change  furthered  by 
him  had  already  been  inaugurated  by  Mozart,  a 
musical  genius  so  great  that  he  seems  to  have  in- 
cluded all  that  went  before,  all  that  succeeded 
him.  It  was  not  merely  that  Rossini  enriched  the 
orchestration  to  such  a  degree,  but,  revolting  from 
the  delay  of  the  dramatic  movement,  caused  by 
the  great  number  of  arias  written  for  each  char- 
acter, he  gave  large  prominence  to  the  concerted 
pieces,  and  used  them  where  monologue  had  for- 
merly been  the  rule.  He  developed  the  basso  and 
baritone  parts,  giving  them  marked  importance  in 
serious  opera,  and  worked  out  the  choruses  and 
finales  with  the  most  elaborate  finish. 

Lord  Mount  Edgcumbe,  a  celebrated  connois- 
seur and  admirer  of  the  old  school,  wrote  of  these 
innovations,  ignoring  the  fact  that  Mozart  had 
given  the  weight  of  his  great  authority  to  them 
before  the  daring  young  Italian  composer  : 

"The  construction  of  these  newly-invented 
pieces  is  essentially  different  from  the  old.  The 
dialogue,  which  used  to  be  carried  on  in  recita- 
tive, and  which,  in  Metastasio's  operas,  is  often  so 
beautiful  and  interesting,  and  now  cut  up  (and 
rendered  unintelligible  if  it  were  worth  listening 
to)  into  pezzi  concertati,  or  long  singing  conversa- 
tions, which  present  a  tedious  succession  of  un- 


ROSSLVI.  61 

connected,  ever-changing  motives,  having  nothing 
to  do  with  each  other  ;  and  if  a  satisfactory  air 
is  for  a  moment  introduced,  which  the  ear  would 
like  to  dwell  upon,  to  hear  modulated,  varied,  and 
again  returned  to,  it  is  broken  off,  before  it  is  well 
understood,  by  a  sudden  transition  in  an  entirely 
different  melody,  time,  and  key,  and  recurs  no 
more,  so  that  no  impression  can  be  made,  or  recol- 
lection of  it  preserved.  Single  songs  are  almost 
exploded.  .  .  .  Even  the  prima  donna,  who  for- 
merly would  have  complained  at  having  less  than 
three  or  four  airs  allotted  to  her,  is  now  satisfied 
with  having  one  single  cavatina  given  to  her  dur- 
ing the  whole  opera." 

In  "Otello,"  Rossini  introduced  his  operatic 
changes  to  the  Italian  public,  and  they  were  well 
received  ;  yet  great  opposition  was  manifested  by 
those  who  clung  to  the  time-honored  canons.  Si- 
gismondi,  of  the  Naples  Conservatory,  was  hor- 
ror-stricken on  first  seeing  the  score  of  this  opera. 
The  clarionets  were  too  much  for  him,  but  on  see- 
ing third  and  fourth  horn-parts,  he  exclaimed  : 
"  What  does  the  man  want  ?  The  greatest  of  our 
composers  have  always  been  contented  with  two. 
Shades  of  Pergolesi,  of  Leo,  of  Jomelli !  How 
they  must  shudder  at  the  bare  thought !  Four 
horns  !  Are  we  at  a  hunting-party  ?  Four  horns  ! 
Enough  to  blow  us  to  perdition  !  "  Donizetti, 
who  was  Sigismondi's  pupil,  also  tells  an  amusing 
incident  of  his  preceptor's  disgust.  He  was  turn- 


62     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

ing  over  a  score  of  "  Semiramide  "  in  the  library, 
when  the  maestro  came  in  and  asked  him  what 
music  it  was.  "  Rossini's,"  was  the  answer.  Si- 
gismondi  glanced  at  the  page  and  saw  1.  2.  3. 
trumpets,  being  the  first,  second,  and  third  trum- 
pet parts.  Aghast,  he  shouted,  stuffing  his  fingers 
in  his  ears,  "  One  hundred  and  twenty-three  trum- 
pets !  Corpo  di  Cristo !  the  world's  gone  mad, 
and  I  shall  go  mad  too  !  "  And  so  he  rushed  from 
the  room,  muttering  to  himself  about  the  hundred 
and  twenty-three  trumpets. 

The  Italian  public,  in  spite  of  such  criticism, 
very  soon  accepted  the  opera  of  "  Otello  "  as  the 
greatest  serious  opera  ever  written  for  their  stage. 
It  owed  much,  however,  to  the  singers  who  illus- 
trated its  r61es.  Mme.  Colbran,  afterward  Ros- 
sini's wife,  sang  Desdemona,  and  Davide,  Otello. 
The  latter  was  the  predecessor  of  Rubini  as  the 
finest  singer  of  the  Rossinian  music.  He  had  the 
prodigious  compass  of  three  octaves ;  and  M. 
Bertin,  a  French  critic,  says  of  this  singer,  so  hon- 
orably linked  with  the  career  of  our  composer  : 
"  He  is  full  of  warmth,  verve,  energy,  expression, 
and  musical  sentiment  ;  alone  he  can  fill  up  and 
give  life  to  a  scene  ;  it  is  impossible  for  another 
singer  to  carry  away  an  audience  as  he  does,  and, 
when  he  will  only  he  simple,  he  is  admirable.  He 
is  the  Rossini  of  song  ;  he  is  the  greatest  singer  I 
ever  heard."  Lord  Byron,  in  one  of  his  letters  to 
Moore,  speaks  of  the  first  production  at  Milan, 


ROSSINI.  63 

and  praises  the  music  enthusiastically,  while  con- 
demning the  libretto  as  a  degradation  of  Shake- 
speare. 

"  La  Cenerentola  "  and  "  La  Gazza  Ladra  " 
were  written  in  quick  succession  for  Naples  and 
Milan.  The  former  of  these  works,  based  on  the 
old  Cinderella  myth,  was  the  last  opera  written  by 
Rossini  to  illustrate  the  beauties  of  the  contralto 
voice,  and  Madame  Georgi-Righetti,  the  early 
friend  and  steadfast  patroness  of  the  musician 
during  his  early  days  of  struggle,  made  her  last 
great  appearance  in  it  before  retiring  from  the 
stage.  In  this  composition,  Rossini,  though  one 
of  the  most  affluent  and  rapid  of  composers,  dis- 
plays that  economy  in  art  which  sometimes  char- 
acterized him.  He  introduced  in  it  many  of  the 
more  beautiful  airs  from  his  earlier  and  less  suc- 
cessful works.  He  believed  on  principle  that  it 
was  folly  to  let  a  good  piece  of  music  be  lost 
through  being  married  to  a  weak  and  faulty  li- 
bretto. The  brilliant  opera  of  "  La  Gazza  Ladra," 
set  to  the  story  of  a  French  melodrama,  "  La  Pie 
Voleuse,"  aggravated  the  quarrel  between  Paer, 
the  director  of  the  French  opera,  and  the  gifted 
Italian.  Paer  had  designed  to  have  written  the 
music  himself,  but  his  librettist  slyly  turned  over 
the  poem  to  Rossini,  who  produced  one  of  his 
masterpieces  in  setting  it.  The  audience  at  La 
Scala  received  the  work  with  the  noisiest  demon- 
strations, interrupting  the  progress  of  the  drama 


64     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

with  constant  cries  of  "  Bravo !  Maestro ! " 
"  Viva  Rossini  !  "  The  composer  afterward  said 
that  acknowledging  the  calls  of  the  audience 
fatigued  him  much  more  than  the  direction  of  the 
opera.  When  the  same  work  was  produced  four 
years  after  in  London,  under  Mr.  Ebers's  manage- 
ment, an  incident  related  by  that  impresario  in  his 
"  Seven  Years  of  the  King's  Theatre  "  shows  how 
eagerly  it  was  received  by  an  English  audience. 

"  When  I  entered  the  stage  door,  I  met  an  in- 
timate friend,  with  a  long  face  and  uplifted  eyes. 
'  Good  God  !  Ebers,  I  pity  you  from  my  soul. 
This  ungrateful  public,'  he  continued.  '  The 
wretches  !  Why  !  my  dear  sir,  they  have  not 
left  you  a  seat  in  your  own  house.'  Relieved 
from  the  fears  he  had  created,  I  joined  him  in  his 
laughter,  and  proceeded,  assuring  him  that  I  felt 
no  ill  toward  the  public  for  their  conduct  toward 
me." 

Passing  over  "  Armida,"  written  for  the  open- 
ing of  the  new  San  Carlo  at  Naples,  "  Adelaida 
di  Borgogna,"  for  the  Roman  Carnival  of  1817, 
and  "  Adina,"  for  a  Lisbon  theatre,  we  come  to  a 
work  which  is  one  of  Rossini's  most  solid  claims 
on  musical  immortality,  "  Mose  in  Egitto,"  first 
produced  at  the  San  Carlo,  Naples,  in  1818.  In 
"  Mose1,"  Rossini  carried  out  still  further  than  ever 
his  innovations,  the  two  principal  roles — Mose 
and  Faraoni — being  assigned  to  basses.  On  the 
first  representation,  the  crossing  of  the  Red  Sea 


ROSSINI.  65 

moved  the  audience  to  satirical  laughter,  which 
disconcerted  the  otherwise  favorable  reception  of 
the  piece,  and  entirely  spoiled  the  final  effects. 
The  manager  was  at  his  wit's  end,  till  Tottola,  the 
librettist,  suggested  a  prayer  for  the  Israelites  be- 
fore and  after  the  passage  of  the  host  through  the 
.cleft  waters.  Rossini  instantly  seized  the  idea, 
and,  springing  from  bed  in  his  night-shirt,  wrote 
the  music  with  almost  inconceivable  rapidity,  be- 
fore his  embarrassed  visitors  recovered  from  their 
surprise.  The  same  evening  the  magnificent  Dal 
tuo  stellato  soglio  ("To  thee,  Great  Lord")  was 
performed  with  the  opera. 

Let  Stendhall,  Rossini's  biographer,  tell  the 
rest  of  the  story  :  "  The  audience  was  delighted 
as  usual  with  the  first  act,  and  all  went  well  -till 
the  third,  when,  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea  being 
at  hand,  the  audience  as  usual  prepared  to  be 
amused.  The  laughter  was  just  beginning  in  the 
pit,  when  it  was  observed  that  Moses  was  about 
to  sing.  He  began  his  solo,  the  first  verse  of  a 
prayer,  which  all  the  people  repeat  in  chorus  after 
Moses.  Surprised  at  this  novelty,  the  pit  listened 
and  the  laughter  entirely  ceased.  The  chorus, 
exceedingly  fine,  was  in  the  minor.  Aaron  con- 
tinues, followed  by  the  people.  Finally,  Eleia  ad- 
dresses to  Heaven  the  same  supplication,  and  the 
people  respond.  Then  all  fall  on  their  knees  and 
repeat  the  prayer  with  enthusiasm  ;  the  miracle 
is  performed,  the  sea  is  opened  to  leave  a  path 


66     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

for  the  people  protected  by  the  Lord.  This  last 
part  is  in  the  major.  It  is  impossible  to  imagine 
the  thunders  of  applause  that  resounded  through 
the  house :  one  would  have  thought  it  was  com- 
ing down.  The  spectators  in  the  boxes,  standing 
up  and  leaning  over,  called  out  at  the  top  of  their 
voices,  *  Hello,  bello  !  0  che  bello  ! '  I  never  saw 
so  much  enthusiasm  nor  such  a  complete  success, 
which  was  so  much  the  greater,  inasmuch  as  the 
people  were  quite  prepared  to  laugh.  ...  I  am 
almost  in  tears  when  I  think  of  this  prayer.  ThL  • 
state  of  things  lasted  a  long  time,  and  one  of  it; 
effects  was  to  make  for  its  composer  the  reputa 
tion  of  an  assassin,  for  Dr.  Cottogna  is  said  to 
have  remarked  :  'I  can  cite  to  you  more  than 
forty  attacks  of  nervous  fever  or  violent  convul- 
sions on  the  part  of  young  women,  fond  to  excess 
of  music,  which  have  no  other  origin  than  the 
prayer  of  the  Hebrews  in  the  third  act,  with  its 
superb  change  of  key.' "  Thus  by  a  stroke  of 
genius,  a  scene  which  first  impressed  the  audience 
as  a  piece  of  theatrical  burlesque,  was  raised  to 
sublimity  by  the  solemn  music  written  for  it. 

M.  Bochsa  some  years  afterward  produced 
"  Mose "  as  an  oratorio  in  London,  and  it  failed. 
A  new  libretto,  however,  "  Pietro  L'Eremito,"  * 
again  transformed  the  music  into  an  opera.  Ebers 

*  The  same  music  was  set  to  a  poem  founded  on  the  first 
crusade,  all  the  most  effective  situations  being  dramatically 
utilized  for  the  Christian  legend. 


ROSSINI.  67 

tells  us  that  Lord  Sefton,  a  distinguished  con- 
nois.-fiir,  only  pronounced  the  general  verdict  in 
calling  it  the  greatest  of  serious  operas,  for  it  was 
received  with  the  greatest  favor.  A  gentleman 
of  high  rank  was  not  satisfied  with  assuring  the 
manager  that  he  had  deserved  well  of  his  country, 
but  avowed  his  determination  to  propose  him  for 
membership  at  the  most  exclusive  of  aristocratic 
clubs — White's. 

%  "  La  Donna  del  Lago,"  Rossini's  next  great 
work,  also  first  produced  at  the  San  Carlo  during 
the  Carnival  of  1820,  though  splendidly  performed, 
did  not  succeed  well  the  first  night.  The  com- 
poser left  Naples  the  same  night  for  Milan,  and 
coolly  informed  every  one  en  roitte  that  the  opera 
was  very  successful,  which  proved  to  be  true  when 
he  reached  his  journey's  end,  for  the  Neapolitans 
on  the  second  night  reversed  their  decision  into 
an  enthusiasm  as  marked  as  their  coldness  had 
been. 

Shortly  after  this  Rossini  married  his  favorite 
prima  donna,  Madame  Colbran.  He  had  just 
completed  two  of  his  now  forgotten  operas,  "  Bi- 
anca  e  Faliero,"  and  "  Matilda  di  Shabran,"  but 
did  not  stay  to  watch  their  public  reception.  He 
quietly  took  away  the  beautiful  Colbran,  and  at 
Bologne  was  married  by  the  archbishop.  Thence 
the  freshly-wedded  couple  visited  Vienna,  and 
Kossini  there  produced  his  "  Zelmira,"  his  wife 
singing  the  principal  part.  One  of  the  most  strik- 


68     GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

ing  of  this  composer's  works  in  invention  and  in- 
genious development  of  ideas,  Carpani  says  of  it  : 
"  It  contains  enough  to  furnish  not  one  but  four 
operas.  In  this  work,  Rossini,  by  the  new  riches 
which  he  draws  from  his  prodigious  imagination, 
is  no  longer  the  author  of  '  Otello,'  '  Tancredi,' 
'  Zoraide,'  and  all  his  preceding  works  ;  he  is  an- 
other composer,  new,  agreeable,  and  fertile,  as 
much  as  at  first,  but  with  more  command  of  him- 
self, more  pure,  more  masterly,  and,  above  all, 
more  faithful  to  the  interpretation  of  the  words. 
The  forms  of  style  employed  in  this  opera  accord- 
ing to  circumstances  are  so  varied,  that  now  we 
seem  to  hear  Gluck,  now  Traetta,  now  Sacchini, 
now  Mozart,  now  Handel ;  for  the  gravity,  the 
learning,  the  naturalness,  the  suavity  of  their  con- 
ceptions, live  and  blossom  again  in  '  Zelmira.' 
The  transitions  are  learned,  and  inspired  more  by 
considerations  of  poetry  and  sense  than  by  caprice 
and  a  mania  for  innovation.  The  vocal  parts,  al- 
ways natural,  never  trivial,  give  expression  to  the 
words  without  ceasing  to  be  melodious.  The 
great  point  is  to  preserve  both.  The  instrumen- 
tation of  Rossini  is  really  incomparable  by  the 
vivacity  and  freedom  of  the  manner,  by  the  va- 
riety and  justness  of  the  coloring."  Yet  it  must 
be  conceded  that,  while  this  opera  made  a  deep 
impression  on  musicians  and  critics,  it  did  not 
please  the  general  public.  It  proved  languid  and 
heavy  with  those  who  could  not  relish  the  science 


ROSSIXI.  69 

of  the  music  and  the  skill  of  the  combinations. 
Such  instances  as  this  are  the  best  answer  to  that 
school  of  critics,  who  have  never  ceased  clamor- 
ing that  Rossini  could  write  nothing  but  beauti- 
ful tunes  to  tickle  the  vulgar  and  uneducated 
mind. 

"  Semiramide,"  first  performed  at  the  Fenice 
theatre  in  Venice  on  February  3,  1823,  was  the 
last  of  Rossini's  Italian  operas,  though  it  had  the 
advantage  of  careful  rehearsals  and  a  noble  caste. 
It  was  not  well  received  at  first,  though  the  ver- 
dict of  time  places  it  high  among  the  musical 
masterpieces  of  the  century.  In  it  were  com- 
bined all  of  Rossini's  ideas  of  operatic  reform, 
and  the  novelty  of  some  of  the  innovations  prob- 
ably accounts  for  the  inability  of  his  earlier  pub- 
lic to  appreciate  its  merits.  Mme.  Rossini  made 
her  last  public  appearance  in  this  great  work. 

IV. 

HENCEFORWARD  the  career  of  the  greatest  of 
the  Italian  composers,  the  genius  who  shares  with 
Mozart  the  honor  of  having  impressed  himself 
more  than  any  other  on  the  style  and  methods  of 
his  successors,  was  to  be  associated  with  French 
music,  though  never  departing  from  his  charac- 
teristic quality  as  an  original  and  creative  mind. 
He  modified  French  music,  and  left  great  disci- 
ples on  whom  his  influence  was  radical,  though 
perhaps  we  may  detect  certain  reflex  influences 


70     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

in  his  last  and  greatest  opera,  "  William  Tell.'5 
But  of  this  more  hereafter. 

Before  finally  settling  in  the  French  capital, 
Rossini  visited  London,  where  he  was  received 
with  great  honors.  "  When  Rossini  entered,"  * 
says  a  writer  in  a  London  paper  of  that  date, 
"  he  was  received  with  loud  plaudits,  all  the  per- 
sons in  the  pit  standing  on  the  scats  to  get  a  bet- 
ter view  of  him.  He  continued  for  a  minute  or 
two  to  bow  respectfully  to  the  audience,  and  then 
gave  the  signal  for  the  overture  to  begin.  He 
appeared  stout  and  somewhat  below  the  middle 
height,  with  rather  a  heavy  air,  and  a  coun- 
tenance which,  though  intelligent,  betrayed  none 
of  the  vivacity  which  distinguishes  his  music; 
and  it  was  remarked  that  he  had  more  of  the 
appearance  of  a  sturdy,  beef-eating  English- 
man, than  a  fiery  and  sensitive  native  of  the 
south." 

The  king,  George  IV.,  treated  Rossini  with 
peculiar  consideration.  On  more  than  one  occa- 
sion he  walked  with  him  arm-in-arm  through  a 
crowded  concert-hall  to  the  conductor's  stand. 
Yet  the  composer,  who  seems  not  to  bjave  admired 
his  English  Majesty,  treated  the  monarch  with 
much  independence,  not  to  say  brusqueness,  on 
one  occasion,  as  if  to  signify  his  disdain  of  even 

*  His  first  English  appearance  in  public  was  at  the  King's 
Theatre  on  the  21th  of  January,  1824,  when  he  conducted  his 
own  opera,  "  Zelmira." 


ROSSINI.  71 

royal  patronage.  At  a  grand  concert  at  St. 
James's  Palace,  the  king  said,  at  the  close  of  the 
programme,  "  Now,  Rossini,  we  will  have  one 
piece  more,  and  that  shall  be  the  finale"  The 
other  replied,  "  I  think,  sir,  we  have  had  music 
enough  for  one  night,"  and  made  his  bow. 

He  was  an  honored  guest  at  the  most  fashion- 
able houses,  where  his  talents  as  a  singer  and 
player  were  displayed  with  much  effect  in  an  un- 
conventional, social  way.  Auber,  the  French 
composer,  was  present  on  one  of  these  occasions, 
and  indicates  how  great  Rossini  could  have  been 
in  executive  music  had  he  not  been  a  king  in  the 
higher  sphere.  "  I  shall  never  forget  the  effect," 
writes  Auber,  "  produced  by  his  lightning-like 
execution.  When  he  had  finished  I  looked  me- 
chanically at  the  ivory  keys.  I  fancied  I  could 
see  them  smoking."  Rossini  was  richer  by  seven 
thousand  pounds  by  this  visit  to  the  English 
metropolis.  Though  he  had  been  under  engage- 
ment to  produce  a  new  opera  as  well  as  to  con- 
duct those  which  had  already  made  him  famous, 
he  failed  to  keep  this  part  of  his  contract.  Pas- 
sages in  his  letters  at  this  time  would  seem  to  in- 
dicate that  Rossini  was  much  piqued  because  the 
London  public  received  his  wife,  to  whom  he  was 
devotedly  attached,  with  coldness.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  beauty  of  her  face  and  figure,  and  the 
greatness  of  her  style  both  as  actress  and  singer, 
she  was  pronounced  passee  alike  in  person  and 


72     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

voice,  with  a  species  of  brutal  frankness  not  un- 
common in  English  criticism. 

When  Rossini  arrived  in  Paris  he  was  almost 
immediately  appointed  director  of  the  Italian 
Opera  by  the  Due  de  Lauriston.  With  this  and 
the  Academic  he  remained  connected  till  the  revo- 
lution of  1830.  "  Le  Siege  de  Corinthe,"  adapted 
from  his  old  work,  "  Maometto  II.,"  was  the  first 
opera  presented  to  the  Parisian  public,  and,  though 
admired,  did  not  become  a  favorite.  The  French 
amour  propre  was  a  little  stung  when  it  was 
made  known  that  Rossini  had  simply  modified 
and  reshaped  one  of  his  early  and  immature  pro- 
ductions as  his  first  attempt  at  composition  in 
French  opera.  His  other  works  for  the  French 
stage  were  "  II  Viaggio  a  Rheims,"  "  Le  Comte 
Ory,"  and  "  Guillaume  Tell." 

The  last-named  opera,  which  will  ever  be  Ros- 
sini's crown  of  glory  as  a  composer,  was  written 
with  his  usual  rapidity  while  visiting  the  chateau 
of  M.  Aguado,  a  country-seat  some  distance  from 
Paris.  This  work,  one  of  the  half-dozen  greatest 
ever  written,  was  first  produced  at  the  Academic 
Royale  on  August  3,  1829.  In  its  early  form  of 
libretto  it  had  a  run  of  fifty-six  representations, 
and  was  then  withdrawn  from  the  stage  ;  and  the 
work  of  remodeling  from  five  to  three  acts,  and 
other  improvements  in  the  dramatic  framework, 
was  thoroughly  carried  out.  In  its  new  form  the 
opera  blazed  into  an  unprecedented  popularity, 


ROSSINI.  73 

for  of  the  greatness  of  the  music  there  had  never 
been  but  one  judgment.  Fetis,  the  eminent  critic, 
writing  of  it  immediately  on  its  production,  said, 
"  The  work  displays  a  new  man  in  an  old  one, 
and  proves  that  it  is  in  vain  to  measure  the  action 
of  genius,"  and  follows  with,  "  This  production 
opens  a  new  career  to  Rossini,"  a  prophecy  un- 
fortunately not  to  be  realized,  for  Rossini  was 
soon  to  retire  from  the  field  in  which  he  had  made 
such  a  remarkable  career,  while  yet  in  the  very 
prime  of  his  powers. 

"  Guillaume  Tell "  is  full  of  melody,  alike  in 
the  solos  and  the  massive  choral  and  ballet  music. 
It  runs  in  rich  streams  through  every  part  of  the 
composition.  The  overture  is  better  known  to 
the  general  public  than  the  opera  itself,  and  is 
one  of  the  great  works  of  musical  art.  The  open 
ing  andante  in  triple  time  for  the  five  vioioncelli 
and  double  basses  at  once  carries  tne  nearer  to 
the  regions  of  the  upper  Alps,  where  amid  thf 
eternal  snows  Nature  sleeps  in  a  peaceful  dream, 
We  perceive  the  coming  of  the  sunlight,  and  tne 
hazy  atmosphere  clearing  away  before  the  new 
born  day.  In  the  next  movement  the  solitude  i& 
all  dispelled.  The  raindrops  fall  thick  and  heavy, 
and  a  thunderstorm  bursts.  But  the  fury  is  soon 
spent,  and  the  clouds  clear  away.  The  shepherds 
are  astir,  and  from  the  mountain-sides  come  the 
peculiar  notes  of  the  "  Ranz  des  Vaches  "  from 
their  pipes.  Suddenly  all  is  changed  again. 


74     CHEAT   ITALIAN    AXD    FRENCH    COMPOSERS. 

Trumpets  call  to  arms,  and  with  the  mustering 
battalions  the  music  marks  the  quickstep,  as  the 
shepherd  patriots  march  to  meet  the  Austrian 
chivalry.  A  brilliant  use  of  the  violins  and  reeds 
depicts  the  exultation  of  the  victors  on  their  re- 
turn, and  closes  one  of  the  grandest  sound-paint- 
ings in  music. 

The  original  cast  of  "  Guillaume  Tell  "  includ- 
ed the  great  singers  then  in  Paris,  and  these  were 
so  delighted  with  the  music,  that  the  morning 
after  the  first  production  they  assembled  on  the 
terrace  before  his  house  and  performed  selections 
from  it  in  his  honor. 

With  this  last  great  effort  Rossini,  at  the  age 
of  thirty-seven,  may  be  said  to  have  retired  from 
the  field  of  music,  though  his  life  was  prolonged 
for  forty  years.  True,  he  composed  the  "  Stabat 
Mater  "  and  the  "  Messe  Solennelle,"  but  neither 
of  these  added  to  the  reputation  won  in  his  pre- 
vious career.  The  "  Stabat  Mater,"  publicly  per- 
formed for  the  first  time  in  1842,  has  been  recog- 
nized, it  is  true,  as  a  masterpiece  ;  but  its  entire 
lack  of  devotional  solemnity,  its  brilliant  and 
showy  texture,  preclude  its  giving  Rossini  any 
rank  as  a  religious  composer. 

He  spent  the  forty  years  of  his  retirement 
partly  at  Bologna,  partly  at  Passy,  near  Paris, 
the  city  of  his  adoption.  His  hospitality  wel- 
comed the  brilliant  men  from  all  parts  of  Europe 
who  loved  to  visit  him,  and  his  relations  with 


ROSSINI.  75 

other  great  musicians  were  of  the  most  kindly 
and  cordial  character.  His  sunny  and  genial  na- 
ture never  knew  envy,  and  he  was  quick  to  recog- 
nize the  merits  of  schools  opposed  to  his  own. 
He  died,  after  intense  suffering,  on  November  13, 
1868.  He  had  been  some  time  ill,  and  four  of  the 
greatest  physicians  in  Europe  were  his  almost 
constant  attendants.  The  funeral  of  "  The  Swan 
of  Pesaro,"  as  he  was  called  by  his  compatriots, 
was  attended  by  an  immense  concourse,  and  his 
remains  rest  in  Pere-Lachake. 

v. 

MOSCHELES,  the  celebrated  pianist,  gives  us 
some  charming  pictures  of  Rossini  in  his  home  at 
Passy,  in  his  diary  of  I860.  He  writes  :  "  Felix 
[his  son]  had  been  made  quite  at  home  in  the 
villa  on  former  occasions.  To  me  the  parterre 
*<il<»t,  with  its  rich  furniture,  was  quite  new,  and 
before  the  maestro  himself  appeared  we  looked 
at  his  photograph  in  a  circular  porcelain  frame, 
on  the  sides  of  which  were  inscribed  the  names 
of  his  works.  The  ceiling  is  covered  with  pict- 
ures illustrating  scenes  out  of  Palestrina's  and 
Mozart's  lives  ;  in  the  middle  of  the  room  stands 
a  Pleyel  piano.  When  Rossini  came  in  he  gave 
me  the  orthodox  Italian  kiss,  and  was  effusive  of 
expressions  of  delight  at  my  reappearance,  and 
very  complimentary  on  the  subject  of  Felix.  In 
the  course  of  our  conversation  he  was  full  of  hard- 


76     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

hitting  truths  on  the  present  study  and  method 
of  vocalization.  '  I  don't  want  to  hear  anything 
more  of  it,'  he  said  ;  '  they  scream.  All  I  want  is 
a  resonant,  full-toned  voice,  not  a  screeching  voice. 
I  care  not  whether  it  be  for  speaking  or  singing, 
everything  ought  to  sound  melodious.' ':  So, 
too,  Rossini  assured  Moscheles  that  he  hated  the 
new  school  of  piano-players,  saying  the  piano  was 
horribly  maltreated,  for  the  performers  thumped 
the  keys  as  if  they  had  some  vengeance  to  wreak 
on  them.  When  the  great  player  improvised 
for  Rossini,  the  latter  says :  "  It  is  music  that 
flows  from  the  fountain-head.  There  is  reservoir 
water  and  spring  water.  The  former  only  runs 
when  you  turn  the  cock,  and  is  always  redo- 
lent of  the  vase  ;  the  latter  always  gushes  forth 
fresh  and  limpid.  Nowadays  people  confound 
the  simple  and  the  trivial ;  a  motif  of  Mozart 
they  would  call  trivial,  if  they  dared." 

On  other  occasions  Moscheles  plays  to  the 
maestro,  who  insists  on  having  discovered  barriers 
in  the  "  humoristic  variations,"  so  boldly  do  they 
seem  to  raise  the  standard  of  musical  revolution  ; 
his  title  of  the  "  Grand  Valse  "  he  finds  too  un- 
assuming. "  Surely  a  waltz  with  some  angelic 
creature  must  have  inspired  you,  Moscheles,  with 
this  composition,  and  that  the  title  ought  to  ex- 
press. Titles,  in  fact,  should  pique  the  curiosity 
of  the  public."  "A  view  uncongenial  to  me," 
adds  Moscheles  ;  "  however,  I  did  not  discuss  it. 


ROSSINI.  77 

....  A  dinner  at  Rossini's  is  calculated  for  the 
enjoyment  of  a  '  gourmet,'  and  he  himself  proved 
to  be  the  one,  for  he  went  through  the  very  select 
menu  as  only  a  connoisseur  would.  After  dinner 
he  looked  through  my  album  of  musical  auto- 
graphs with  the  greatest  interest,  and  finally  we 
became  very  merry,  I  producing  my  musical 
jokes  on  the  piano,  and  Felix  and  Clara  figuring 
in  the  duet  which  I  had  written  for  her  voice  and 
his  imitation  of  the  French  horn.  Rossini  cheered 
lustily,  and  so  one  joke  followed  another  till  we 
received  the  parting  kiss  and  '  good  night.'  .  .  . 
At  my  next  visit,  Rossini  showed  me  a  charming 
'  Lied  ohne  Worte,'  which  he  composed  only  yes- 
terday ;  a  graceful  melody  is  embodied  in  the 
well-known  technical  form.  Alluding  to  a  per- 
formance of  '  Semiramide,'  he  said  with  a  mali- 
cious smile,  '  I  suppose  you  saw  the  beautiful 
decorations  in  it  ?  '  He  has  not  received  the  Sis- 
ters Marchisio  for  fear  they  should  sing  to  him, 
nor  has  he  heard  them  in  the  theatre  ;  he  spoke 
warmly  of  Pasta,  Lablache,  Rubini,  and  others, 
then  he  added  that  I  ought  not  to  look  with  jeal- 
ousy upon  his  budding  talent  as  a  pianoforte- 
player,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  I  should  help  to 
establish  his  reputation  as  such  in  Leipsic.  He 
again  questioned  me  with  much  interest  about 
my  intimacy  with  dementi,  and,  calling  me  that 
master's  worthy  successor,  he  said  he  should  like 
to  visit  me  in  Leipsic,  if  it  were  not  for  those 


78     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

dreadful  railways,  which  he  would  never  travel 
by.  All  this  in  his  bright  and  lively  way  ;  but 
when  we  came  to  discuss  Chevet,  who  wishes  to 
supplant  musical  notes  by  ciphers,  he  maintained 
in  an  earnest  and  dogmatic  tone  that  the  system 
of  notation,  as  it  had  developed  itself  since  Pope 
Gregory's  time,  was  sufficient  for  all  musical  re- 
quirements. He  certainly  could  not  withhold 
some  appreciation  for  Chevet,  but  refused  to  in- 
dorse the  certificate  granted  by  the  Institute  in 
his  favor  ;  the  system  he  thought  impracticable. 

"  The  never- failing  stream  of  conversation 
flowed  on  until  eleven  o'clock,  when  I  was  favored 
with  the  inevitable  kiss,  which  on  this  occasion 
was  accompanied  by  special  farewell  blessings." 

Shortly  after  Moscheles  had  left  Paris,  his  son 
forwarded  to  him  most  friendly  messages  from 
Rossini,  and  continues  thus  :  "Rossini  sends  you 
word  that  he  is  working  hard  at  the  piano,  and, 
when  you  next  come  to  Paris,  you  shall  find  him 
in  better  practice.  .  .  .  The  conversation  turning 
upon  German  music,  I  asked  him  '  which  was  his 
favorite  among  the  great  masters  ? '  Of  Beetho- 
ven he  said  :  '  I  take  him  twice  a  week,  Haydn 
four  times,  and  Mozart  every  day.  You  will  tell 
me  that  Beethoven  is  a  Colossus  who  often  gives 
you  a  dig  in  the  ribs,  while  Mozart  is  always 
adorable  ;  it  is  that  the  latter  had  the  chance  of 
going  very  young  to  Italy,  at  a  time  when  they 
still  sang  well.'  Of  Weber  he  says,  '  He  has 


ROSSIXI.  79 

talent  enough,  and  to  spare '  (II  a  du  talent  d  re- 
vendre,  celui-ld).  He  told  me  in  reference  to  him, 
that,  when  the  part  of  '  Tancred '  was  sung  at  Ber- 
lin by  a  bass  voice,  Weber  had  written  violent 
articles  not  only  against  the  management,  but 
against  the  composer,  so  that,  when  Weber  came 
to  Paris,  he  did  not  venture  to  call  on  Rossini, 
who,  however,  let  him  know  that  he  bore  him  no 
grudge  for  having  made  these  attacks  ;  on  receipt 
of  that  message  Weber  called  and  they  became 
acquainted. 

"  I  asked  him  if  he  had  met  Byron  in  Venice  ? 
'  Only  in  a  restaurant,'  was  the  answer,  '  where  I 
was  introduced  to  him  ;  our  acquaintance,  there- 
fore, was  very  slight ;  it  seems  he  has  spoken  of 
me,  but  I  don't  know  what  he  says.'  I  translated 
for  him,  in  a  somewhat  milder  form,  Byron's 
words,  which  happened  to  be  fresh  in  my  mem- 
ory :  'They  have  been  crucifying  Othello  into  an 
opera;  the  music  good  but  lugubrious,  but,  as  for 
the  words,  all  the  real  scenes  with  lago  cut  out, 
and  the  greatest  nonsense  instead,  the  handker- 
chief turned  into  a  billet-doux,  and  the  first  singer 
would  not  black  his  face — singing,  dresses,  and 
music  very  good.'  The  maestro  regretted  his 
ignorance  of  the  English  language,  and  said,  '  In 
my  day  I  gave  much  time  to  the  study  of  our 
Italian  literature.  Dante  is  the  man  I  owe  most 
to  ;  he  taught  me  more  music  than  all  my  music- 
masters  put  together,  and  when  I  wrote  my  '  Otel- 


80     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

lo,'  I  would  introduce  those  lines  of  Dante — you 
know  the  song  of  the  gondolier.  My  librettist 
would  have  it  that  gondoliers  never  sang  Dante, 
and  but  rarely  Tasso,  but  I  answered  him,  '  I 
know  all  about  that  better  than  you,  for  I  have 
lived  in  Venice  and  you  haven't.  Dante  I  must 
and  will  have.' " 

VI. 

AN  ardent  disciple  of  Wagner  sums  up  his 
ideas  of  the  mania  for  the  Rossini  music,  which 
possessed  Europe  for  fifteen  years,  in  the  follow- 
ing :  "  Rossini,  the  most  gifted  and  spoiled  of  her 
sons  [speaking  of  Italy]  sallied  forth  with  an  in- 
numerable army  of  Bacchantic  melodies  to  con- 
quer the  world,  the  Messiah  of  joy,  the  breaker  of 
thought  and  sorrow.  Europe,  by  this  time,  had 
tired  of  the  empty  pomp  of  French  declamation. 
It  lent  but  too  willing  an  ear  to  the  new  gospel, 
and  eagerly  quaffed  the  intoxicating  potion,  which 
Rossini  poured  out  in  inexhaustible  streams." 
This  very  well  expresses  the  delight  of  all  the 
countries  of  Europe  in  music  which  for  a  long 
time  almost  monopolized  the  stage. 

The  charge  of  being  a  mere  tune-spinner,  the 
denial  of  invention,  depth,  and  character,  have 
been  common  watchwords  in  the  mouths  of  crit- 
ics wedded  to  other  schools.  But  Rossini's  place 
in  music  stands  unshaken  by  all  assaults.  The 
vivacity  of  his  style,  the  freshness  of  his  melo- 


ROSSIXI.  81 

dk's,  the  richness  of  his  combinations,  made  all  the 
Italian  music  that  preceded  him  pale  and  color- 
less. No  other  writer  revels  in  such  luxury  of 
beauty,  and  delights  the  ear  with  such  a  succes- 
sion of  delicious  surprises  in  melody. 

Henry  Chorley,  in  his  "  Thirty  Years'  Musical 
Recollections,"  rebukes  the  bigotry  which  sees 
nothing  good  but  in  its  own  kind  :  "  I  have  nev- 
er been  able  to  understand  why  this  [referring  to 
the  Rossinian  richness  of  melody]  should  be  con- 
temned as  necessarily  false  and  meretricious — why 
the  poet  may  not  be  allowed  the  benefit  of  his 
own  period  and  time — why  a  lover  of  architecture 
is  to  be  compelled  to  swear  by  the  Dom  at  Bam- 
berg,  or  by  the  Cathedral  at  Monreale — that  he 
must  abhor  and  denounce  Michel  Angelo's  church 
or  the  Baths  of  Diocletian  at  Rome — why  the 
person  who  enjoys  '  II  Barbiere '  is  to  be  de- 
nounced as  frivolously  faithless  to  Mozart's  '  Fi- 
garo'— and  as  incapable  of  comprehending  'Fi- 
delio,'  because  the  last  act  of  '  Otello '  and  the 
second  of  '  Guillaume  Tell '  transport  him  into  as 
great  an  enjoyment  of  its  kind  as  do  the  duet  in 
the  cemetery  between  '  Don  Juan  '  and  '  Leporel- 
lo '  and  the  '  Prisoners'  Chorus.'  How  much 
good,  genial  pleasure  has  not  the  world  -lost  in 
music,  owing  to  the  pitting  of  styles  one  against 
the  other  !  Your  true  traveler  will  be  all  the 
more  alive  to  the  beauty  of  Nuremberg  because 
he  has  looked  out  over  the  '  Golden  Shell  *  at  Pa- 


82     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

lermo  ;  nor  delight  in  Rhine  and  Danube  the 
less  because  he  has  seen  the  glow  of  a  southern 
sunset  over  the  broken  bridge  at  Avignon." 

As  grand  and  true  as  are  many  of  the  essen- 
tial elements  in  the  Wagner  school  of  musical 
composition,  the  bitterness  and  narrowness  of 
spite  with  which  its  upholders  have  pursued  the 
memory  of  Rossini  is  equally  offensive  and  un- 
warrantable. Rossini,  indeed,  did  not  revolu- 
tionize the  forms  of  opera  as  transmitted  to  him 
by  his  predecessors,  but  he  reformed  and  perfect- 
ed them  in  various  notable  ways.  Both  in  comic 
and  serious  opera,  music  owes  much  to  Rossini. 
He  substituted  genuine  singing  for  the  endless 
recitative  of  which  the  Italian  opera  before  him 
largely  consisted  ;  he  brought  the  bass  and  bari- 
tone voices  to  the  front,  banished  the  pianoforte 
from  the  orchestra,  and  laid  down  the  principle 
that  the  singer  should  deliver  the  notes  written 
for  him  without  additions  of  his  own.  He  gave 
the  chorus  a  much  more  important  part  than  be- 
fore, and  elaborated  the  concerted  music,  espe- 
cially in  the  finales,  to  a  degree  of  artistic  beauty 
before  unknown  in  the  Italian  opera.  Above  all, 
he  made  the  operatic  orchestra  what  it  is  to-day. 
Every  new  instrument  that  was  invented  Rossini 
found  a  place  for  in  his  brilliant  scores,  and  there- 
by incurred  the  warmest  indignation  of  all  writers 
of  the  old  school.  Before  him  the  orchestras  had 
consisted  largely  of  strings,  but  Rossini  added 


ROSSINI.  83 

an  equally  imposing  element  of  the  brasses  and 
.reeds.  True,  Mozart  had  forestalled  Rossini  in 
many  if  not  all  these  innovations,  a  fact  which 
the  Italian  cheerfully  admitted  ;  for,  with  the  sim- 
ple frankness  characteristic  of  the  man,  he  always 
spoke  of  his  obligations  to  and  his  admiration  of 
the  grea*  German.  To  an  admirer  who  was  one 
day  burning  incense  before  him,  Rossini  said,  in 
the  spirit  of  Cimarosa  quoted  elsewhere  :  "  My 
*  Barber '  is  only  a  bright  farce,  but  in  Mozart's 
'  Marriage  of  Figaro  '  you  have  the  finest  possible 
masterpiece  of  musical  comedy." 

With  all  concessions  made  to  Mozart  as  the 
founder  of  the  forms  of  modern  opera,  an  equally 
high  place  must  be  given  to  Rossini  for  the  vigor 
and  audacity  with  which  he  made  these  available, 
and  impressed  them  on  all  his  contemporaries  and 
successors.  Though  Rossini's  self-love  was  flat- 
tered by  constant  adulation,  his  expressions  of  re- 
spect and  admiration  for  such  composers  as  Mozart, 
Gluck,  Beethoven,  and  Cherubini  display  what  a 
catholic  and  generous  nature  he  possessed.  The 
judgment  of  Ambros,  a  severe  critic,  whose  bias  was 
against  Rossini,  shows  what  admiration  was  wrung 
from  him  by  the  last  opera  of  the  composer:  "  Of 
all  that  particularly  characterizes  Rossini's  early 
operas  nothing  is  discoverable  in  '  Tell  ; '  there  is 
none  of  his  usual  mannerism  ;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, unusual  richness  of  form  and  careful  finish 
of  detail,  combined  with  grandeur  of  outline. 


84     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

Meretricious  embellishment,  shakes,  runs,  and  ca- 
dences are  carefully  avoided  in  this  work,  which 
is  natural  and  characteristic  throughout  ;  even 
the  melodies  have  not  the  stamp  and  style  of 
Rossini's  earlier  times,  but  only  their  graceful 
charm  and  lively  coloring." 

Rossini  must  be  allowed  to  be  unequaled  in 
genuine  comic  opera,  and  to  have  attained  a  dis- 
tinct greatness  in  serious  opera,  to  be  the  most 
comprehensive  and  at  the  same  time  the  most 
national  composer  of  Italy,  to  be,  in  short,  the 
Mozart  of  his  country.  After  all  has  been  ad- 
mitted and  regretted — that  he  gave  too  little  at- 
tention to  musical  science;  that  he  often  neglected 
to  infuse  into  his  work  the  depth  and  passion  of 
which  it  was  easily  capable  ;  that  he  placed  too 
high  a  value  on  merely  brilliant  effects  ad  captan- 
dum  vulgus — there  remains  the  fact  that  his  operas 
embody  a  mass  of  imperishable  music,  which  will 
live  with  the  art  itself.  Musicians  of  every  coun- 
try now  admit  his  wondrous  grace,  his  fertility 
and  freshness  of  invention,  his  matchless  treat- 
ment of  the  voice,  his  effectiveness  in  arrange- 
ment of  the  orchestra.  He  can  never  be  made  a 
model,  for  his  genius  had  too  much  spontaneity 
and  individuality  of  color.  But  he  impressed  and 
modified  music  hardly  less  than  Gluck,  whose 
tastes  and  methods  were  entirely  antagonistic  to 
his  own.  That  he  should  have  retired  from  the 
exercise  of  his  art  while  in  the  full  flower  of  his 


DONIZETTI   AND   BELLIXI.  85 

genius  is  a  perplexing  fact.  No  stranger  story  is 
recorded  in  the  annals  of  art  with  respect  to  a 
genius  who  filled  the  world  with  his  glory,  and 
then  chose  to  vanish,  "  not  unseen."  On  finishing 
his  crowning  stroke  of  genius  and  skill  in  "  Wil- 
liam Tell,"  he  might  have  said  with  Shakespeare's 
enchanter,  Prospero  : 

" .  .  .  .  But  this  magic 
I  here  abjure  ;  and  when  I  have  required 
Some  heavenly  music  (which  even  now  I  do) 
To  work  mine  end  upon  their  senses  that 
This  airy  charm  is  for,  I'll  break  my  staff — 
Bury  it  certain  fathoms  in  the  earth, 
And,  deeper  than  did  ever  plummet  sound, 
I'll  drown  my  book." 


DONIZETTI  AND   BELLINI. 


A  BRIGHT  English  critic,  whose  style  is  as 
charming  as  his  judgments  are  good,  says,  in  his 
study  of  the  Donizetti  music  :  "  I  find  myself 
thinking  of  his  music  as  I  do  of  Domenichino's 
pictures  of  '  St.  Agnes  '  and  the  '  Rosario  '  in  the 
Bologna  gallery,  of  the  '  Diana '  in  the  Borghese 
Palace  at  Rome,  as  pictures  equable  and  skillful 
in  the  treatment  of  their  subjects,  neither  devoid 
of  beauty  of  form  nor  of  color,  but  which  make 


86     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FREXCII   COMPOSERS. 

neither  the  pulse  quiver  nor  the  eye  wet  ;  and 
then  such  a  sweeping  judgment  is  arrested  by  a 
work  like  the  '  St.  Jerome  '  in  the  Vatican,  from 
which  a  spirit  comes  forth  so  strong  and  so 
exalted,  that  the  beholder,  however  trained  to 
examine,  and  compare,  and  collect,  finds  himself 
raised  above  all  recollections  of  manner  by  the 
sudden  ascent  of  talent  into  the  higher  world 
of  genius.  Essentially  a  second-rate  composer,* 
Donizetti  struck  out  some  first-rate  things  in  a 
happy  hour,  such  as  the  last  act  of  '  La  Favorita.' " 
Both  Donizetti  and  Bellini,  though  far  inferior 
to  their  master  in  richness  of  resources,  in  crea- 
tive faculty  and  instinct  for  what  may  be  called 
dramatic  expression  in  pure  musical  form,  were 
disciples  of  Rossini  in  their  ideas  and  methods  of 
work.  Milton  sang  of  Shakespeare — 

"  Sweetest  Shakespeare,  Fancy's  child, 
Warbles  his  native  wood-notes  wild  !  " 

In  a  similar  spirit,  many  learned  critics  have  writ- 
ten of  Rossini,  and  if  it  can  be  said  of  him  in  a 
musical  sense  that  he  had  "  little  Latin  and  less 
Greek,"  still  more  true  is  it  of  the  two  popular 
composers  whose  works  have  filled  so  large  a 
space  in  the  opera-house  of  the  last  thirty  years, 
for  their  scores  are  singularly  thin,  measured  by 

*  Mr.  Chorley  probably  means  "  second-rate  "  as  compared 
with  the  few  very  great  names,  which  can  be  easily  counted  on 
the  fingers. 


DOXIZETTI   AND   BELLINI.  87 

the  standard  of  advanced  musical  science.  Spe- 
cially may  this  be  said  of  Bellini,  in  many  respects 
the  greater  of  the  two.  There  is  scarcely  to  be 
found  in  music  a  more  signal  example  to  show 
that  a  marked  individuality  may  rest  on  a  narrow 
base.  In  justice  to  him,  however,  it  may  be  said 
that  his  early  death  prevented  him  from  doing 
full  justice  to  his  powers,  for  he  had  in  him  the 
material  out  of  which  the  great  artist  is  made. 
Let  us  first  sketch  the  career  of  Donizetti,  the 
author  of  sixty-four  operas,  besides  a  mass  of 
other  music,  such  as  cantatas,  ariettas,  duets, 
church  music,  etc.,  in  the  short  space  of  twenty- 
six  years. 

Gaetano  Donizetti  was  born  at  Bergamo,  Sep- 
tember 25,  1798,  his  father  being  a  man  of  mod- 
erate fortune.*  Receiving  a  good  classical  educa- 

*  Admirers  of  the  author  of  "  Don  Pasquale  "  and  "  Lucia  " 
may  be  interested  in  knowing  that  Donizetti  was  of  Scotch 
descent.  His  grandfather  was  a  native  of  Perthshire,  named 
Izett.  The  young  Scot  was  beguiled  by  the  fascinating  tongue 
of  a  recruiting-sergeant  into  his  Britannic  majesty's  service, 
and  was  taken  prisoner  by  General  La  Hoche  during  the  latter's 
invasion  of  Ireland.  Already  tired  of  a  private's  life,  he  ac- 
cepted the  situation,  and  was  induced  to  become  the  French 
general's  private  secretary.  Subsequently  he  drifted  to  Italy, 
and  married  an  Italian  lady  of  some  rank,  denationalizing  his 
own  name  into  Donizetti.  The  Scottish  predilections  of  our 
composer  show  themselves  in  the  music  of  "  Don  Pasquale," 
noticeably  in  "Com'  e  gentil;  "  and  the  score  of  "Lucia"  is 
strongly  flavored  by  Scottish  sympathy  and  minstrelsy. 


88     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

tion,  the  young  Gaetano  had  three  careers  open 
before  him  :  the  bar,  to  which  the  will  of  his 
father  inclined  ;  architecture,  indicated  by  his  tal- 
ent for  drawing  ;  and  music,  to  which  he  was 
powerfully  impelled  by  his  own  inclinations.  His 
father  sent  him,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  to  Bo- 
logna to  benefit  by  the  instruction  of  Padre  Mat- 
tei,  who  had  also  been  Rossini's  master.  The 
young  man  showed  no  disposition  for  the  heights 
of  musical  science  as  demanded  by  religious  com- 
position, and,  much  to  his  father's  disgust,  avowed 
his  determination  to  write  dramatic  music.  Pa- 
ternal anger,  for  the  elder  Donizetti  seems  to  have 
had  a  strain  of  Scotch  obstinacy  and  austerity, 
made  the  youth  enlist  as  a  soldier,  thinking  to 
find  time  for  musical  work  in  the  leisure  of  bar- 
rack-life. His  first  opera,  "  Enrico  di  Borgogna," 
was  so  highly  admired  by  the  Venetian  manager, 
to  whom  it  was  offered,  that  he  induced  friends 
of  his  to  release  young  Donizetti  from  his  mili- 
tary servitude.  He  now  pursued  musical  compo- 
sition with  a  facility  and  industry  which  aston- 
ished even  the  Italians,  familiar  with  feats  of  im- 
provisation. In  ten  years  twenty-eight  operas 
were  produced.  Such  names  as  "  Olivo  e  Pas- 
quale,"  "  La  Convenienze  Teatrali,"  "  II  Borgo- 
maestro  di  Saardam,"  "  Gianni  di  Calais,"  "L'Esule 
di  Roma,"  "  II  Castello  di  Kenilworth,"  "  Imelda 
di  Lambertazzi,"  have  no  musical  significance, 
except  as  belonging  to  a  catalogue  of  forgotten 


DONIZETTI   AXD    BELLINI.  89 

titles.  Donizetti  was  so  poorly  paid  that  need 
drove  him  to  rapid  composition,  which  could  not 
wait  for  the  true  afflatus. 

It  was  not  till  1831  that  the  evidence  of  a 
strong  individuality  w^s  given,  for  hitherto  he 
had  shown  little  more  than  a  slavish  imitation  of 
Rossini.  "  Anna  Bolena  "  was  produced  at  Milan 
and  gained  him  great  credit,  and  even  now,  though 
it  is  rarely  sung  even  in  Italy,  it  is  much  respected 
as  a  work  of  art  as  well  as  of  promise.  It  was 
first  interpreted  by  Pasta  and  Rubini,  and  La- 
blache  won  his  earliest  London  triumph  in  it. 
"  Marino  Faliero "  was  composed  for  Paris  in 
1835,  and  "  L'Elisir  d'Amore,"  one  of  the  most 
graceful  and  pleasing  of  Donizetti's  works,  for 
Milan  in  1832.  "  Lucia  di  Lammermoor,"  based 
on  Walter  Scott's  novel,  was  given  to  the  public  in 
1835,  and  has  remained  the  most  popular  of  the 
composer's  operas.  Edgardo  was  written  for  the 
great  French  tenor,  Duprez,  Lucia  for  Persiani. 

Donizetti's  kindness  of  heart  was  illustrated 
by  the  interesting  circumstances  of  his  saving  an 
obscure  Neapolitan  theatre  from  ruin.  Hearing 
that  it  was  on  the  verge  of  suspension  and  the 
performers  in  great  distress,  the  composer  sought 
them  out  and  supplied  their  immediate  wants. 
The  manager  said  a  new  work  from  the  pen  of 
Donizetti  would  be  his  salvation.  "You  shall 
have  one  within  a  week,"  was  the  answer. 

Lacking  a  subject,  he  himself  rearranged  an 


90     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

old  French  vaudeville,  and  within  the  week  the 
libretto  was  written,  the  music  composed,  the  parts 
learned,  the  opera  performed,  and  the  theatre 
saved.  There  could  be  no  greater  proof  of  his 
generosity  of  heart  and  his  versatility  of  talent. 
In  these  days  of  bitter  quarreling  over  the  rights 
of  authors  in  their  works,  it  may  be  amusing  to 
know  that  Victor  Hugo  contested  the  rights  of 
Italian  librettists  to  borrow  their  plots  from  French 
plays.  When  "  Lucrezia  Borgia,"  composed  for 
Milan  in  1834,  was  produced  at  Paris  in  1840,  the 
French  poet  instituted  a  suit  for  an  infringement 
of  copyright.  He  gained  his  action,  and  "  Lu- 
crezia Borgia "  became  "  La  Rinegata,"  Pope 
Alexander  the  Sixth's  Italians  being  metamor- 
phosed into  Turks.* 

"Lucrezia  Borgia,"  which,  though  based  on 
one  of  the  most  dramatic  of  stories  and  full  of 

*  Victor  Hugo  did  the  same  thing  with  Verdi's  "  Ernani," 
and  other  French  authors  followed  with  legal  actions.  The 
matter  was  finally  arranged  on  condition  of  an  indemnity  being 
paid  to  the  original  French  dramatists.  The  principle  involved 
had  been  established  nearly  two  centuries  before.  In  a  privi- 
lege granted  to  St.  Amant  in  1653  for  the  publication  of  his 
"  MoYse  Sauvc,"  it  was  forbidden  to  extract  from  that  epic  ma- 
terials for  a  play  or  poem.  The  descendants  of  Beaumarrhais 
fought  for  the  same  concession,  and  not  very  long  ago  it  was 
decided  that  the  translators  and  arrangers  of  "  Le  No/ze  <H 
Figaro  "  for  the  Theatre  Lyrique  must  share  their  receipts  with 
the  living  representatives  of  the  author  of  "  Le  Manage  de 
Figaro." 


DOXIZETTI    AXD    BELLINI  91 

beautiful  music,  is  not  dramatically  treated  by 
the  composer,  seems  to  mark  the  distance  about 
half  way  between  the  styles  of  Rossini  and  Verdi. 
In  it  there  is  but  little  recitative,  and  in  the  treat- 
ment of  the  chorus  we  find  the  method  which 
Verdi  afterward  came  to  use  exclusively.  When 
Donizetti  revisited  Paris  in  1840  he  produced 
in  rapid  succession  "  I  Martiri,"  "  La  Fille  du 
Re  giment,"  and  "  La  Favorita."  In  the  second 
of  these  works  Jenny  Lind,  Sontag,  and  Alboni 
won  bright  triumphs  at  a  subsequent  period. 

ii. 

"  LA  FAVORITA,"  the  story  of  which  was  drawn 
from  "L'Ange  de  Nigida,"  and  founded  in  the 
first  instance  on  a  French  play,  "  Le  Comte  de 
Commingues,"  was  put  on  the  stage  at  the  Acade- 
mic with  a  magnificent  cast  and  scenery,  and 
achieved  a  success  immediately  great,  for  as  a 
dramatic  opera  it  stands  far  in  the  van  of  all  the 
composer's  productions.  The  whole  of  the  grand 
fourth  act,  with  the  exception  of  one  cavatina, 
was  composed  in  three  hours.  Donizetti  had  been 
dining  at  the  house  of  a  friend,  who  was  engaged 
in  the  evening  to  go  to  a  ball.  On  leaving  the 
house,  his  host,  with  profuse  apologies,  begged  the 
composer  to  stay  and  finish  his  coffee,  of  which 
Donizetti  was  inordinately  fond.  The  latter  sent 
out  for  music  paper,  and,  finding  himself  in  the 
vein  for  composition,  went  on  writing  till  the  corn- 


92     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

pletion  of  the  work.  He  had  just  put  the  final 
stroke  to  the  celebrated  "  Viens  dans  un  autre 
patrie  "  when  his  friend  returned  at  one  in  the 
morning  to  congratulate  him  on  his  excellent 
method  of  passing  the  time,  and  to  hear  the  music 
sung  for  the  first  time  from  Donizetti's  own  lips. 

After  visiting  Rome,  Milan,  and  Vienna,  for 
which  last  city  he  wrote  "  Linda  di  Chamouni," 
our  composer  returned  to  Paris,  and  in  1843  wrote 
"  Don  Pasquale "  for  the  Theatre  Italien,  and 
"  Don  Sebastian  "  for  the  Academie.  Its  lugu- 
brious drama  was  fatal  to  the  latter,  but  the  brill- 
iant gayety  of  "  Don  Pasquale,"  rendered  special- 
ly delightful  by  such  a  magnificent  cast  as  Grisi, 
Mario,  Tamburini,  and  Lablache,  made  it  one  of 
the  great  art  attractions  of  Paris,  and  a  Fortuna- 
tus  purse  for  the  manager.  The  music  of  this 
work  perhaps  is  the  best  ever  written  by  Doni- 
zetti, though  it  lacks  the  freshness  and  sentiment 
of  his  "  Elisir  d'Amore,"  which  is  steeped  in  rus- 
tic poetry  and  tenderness  like  a  rose  wet  with 
dew.  The  production  of  "  Maria  di  Rohan  "  in 
Vienna  the  same  year,  an  opera  with  some  power- 
ful dramatic  effects  and  bold  music,  gave  Ronconi 
the  opportunity  to  prove  himself  not  merely  a 
fine  buffo  singer,  but  a  noble  tragic  actor.  In  this 
work  Donizetti  displays  that  rugged  earnestness 
and  vigor  so  characteristic  of  Verdi ;  and,  had  his 
life  been  greatly  prolonged,  we  might  have  seen 
him  ripen  into  a  passion  and  power  at  odds  with 


DONIZETTI    AND   BELLINI.  93 

the  elegant  frivolity  which  for  the  most  part 
tainted  his  musical  quality.  Donizetti's  last  opera, 
"  Catarina  Comaro  "  the  sixty-third  one  represent- 
ed, was  brought  out  at  Naples  in  the  year  1844 
without  adding  aught  to  his  his  reputation.  Of 
this  composer's  long  list  of  works  only  ten  or 
eleven  retain  any  hold  on  the  stage,  his  best  seri- 
ous operas  being  "  La  Favorita,"  "  Linda,"  "  Anna 
Bolena,"  "  Lucrezia  Borgia,"  and  "  Lucia  ;  "  the 
finest  comic  works,  "  L'Elisir  d'Amore,"  "  La  Fille 
du  Regiment,"  and  "  Don  Pasquale." 

In  composing  Donizetti  never  used  the  piano- 
forte, writing  with  great  rapidity  and  never  mak- 
ing corrections.  Yet  curious  to  say,  he  could  not 
do  anything  without  a  small  ivory  scraper  by  his 
side,  though  never  using  it.  It  was  given  him  by 
his  father  when  commencing  his  career,  with  the 
injunction  that,  as  he  was  determined  to  become 
a  musician,  he  should  make  up  his  mind  to  write 
as  little  rubbish  as  possible,  advice  which  Doni- 
zetti sometimes  forgot. 

The  first  signs  of  the  malady,  which  was  the 
cause  of  the  composer's  death,  had  already  shown 
themselves  in  1845.  Fits  of  hallucination  and  all 
the  symptoms  of  approaching  derangement  dis- 
played themselves  with  increasing  intensity.  An 
incessant  worker,  overseer  of  his  operas  on  twenty 
stages,  he  had  to  pay  the  tax  by  which  his  fame 
became  his  ruin.  It  is  reported  that  he  anticipa- 
ted the  coming  scourge,  for  during  the  rehearsals 
7 


94     GREAT  ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

of  "  Don  Sebastian  "  be  said,  "  I  tbink  I  sball  go 
mad  yet."  Still  he  would  not  put  the  bridle  on 
his  restless  activity.  At  last  paralysis  seized  him, 
and  in  January,  1846,  he  was  placed  under  the  care 
of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Blanche  at  Ivry.  In  the 
hope  that  the  mild  influence  of  his  native  air 
might  heal  his  distempered  brain,  he  was  sent  to 
Bergamo,  in  1848,  but  died  in  his  brother's  arms 
April  8th.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Peninsula  were 
then  at  war  with  Austria,  and  the  bells  that  sound- 
ed the  knell  of  Donizetti's  departure  mingled  their 
solemn  peals  with  the  roar  of  the  cannon  fired  to 
celebrate  the  victory  of  Goi'to. 

His  faithful  valet,  Antoine,  wrote  to  Adolphe 
Adam,  describing  his  obsequies  :  "  More  than  four 
thousand  persons,"  he  relates,  "  were  present  at  the 
ceremony.  The  procession  was  composed  of  the 
numerous  clergy  of  Bergamo,  the  most  illustri- 
ous members  of  the  community  and  its  environs, 
and  of  the  civic  guard  of  the  town  and  the  sub- 
urbs. The  discharge  of  musketry,  mingled  with 
the  light  of  three  or  four  thousand  torches,  pre- 
sented a  fine  effect ;  the  whole  was  enhanced  by 
the  presence  of  three  military  bands  and  the  most 
propitious  weather  it  was  possible  to  behold.  The 
young  gentlemen  of  Bergamo  insisted  on  bearing 
the  remains  of  their  illustrious  fellow-townsman, 
although  the  cemetery  was  a  league  and  a  half  from 
the  town.  The  road  was  crowded  its  whole  length 
by  people  who  came  from  the  surrounding  coun- 


DONIZETTI   AND   BELLINI.  95 

try  to  witness  the  procession  ;  and  to  give  due 
praise  to  the  inhabitants  of  Bergamo,  never, 
hitherto,  had  such  great  honors  been  bestowed 
upon  any  member  of  that  city." 

in. 

THE  future  author  of  "  Norma "  and  "  La 
Sonnambula,"  Bellini,  took  his  first  lessons  in 
music  from  his  father,  an  organist  at  Catania.* 
He  was  sent  to  the  Naples  Conservatory  by  the 
generosity  of  a  noble  patron,  and  there  was  the 
fellow-pupil  of  Mercadante,  a  composer  who 
blazed  into  a  temporary  lustre  which  threatened 
to  outshine  his  fellows,  but  is  now  forgotten  ex- 
cept by  the  antiquarian  and  the  lover  of  church 
music.  Bellini's  early  works,  for  he  composed 
three  before  he  was  twenty,  so  pleased  Barbaja, 
the  manager  of  the  San  Carlo  and  La  Scala,  that 
he  intrusted  the  youth  with  the  libretto  of  "  II 
Pirata,"  to  be  composed  for  representation  at  Flor- 
ence. The  tenor  part  was  written  for  the  great 
singer,  Rubin i,  whose  name  has  no  peer  among 
artists,  since  male  sopranos  were  abolished  by  the 
outraged  moral  sense  of  society.  Rubini  retired 
to  the  country  with  Bellini,  and  studied,  as  they 
were  produced,  the  simple  touching  airs  with 
which  he  so  delighted  the  public  on  the  stage. 

*  Bellini  was  born  in  1802,  nine  years  after  his  contempo- 
rary and  rival,  Donizetti,  and  died  in  1835,  thirteen  years  be- 
fore. 


96     GREAT   ITALIAN  AND  FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

La  Scala  rang  with  plaudits  when  the  opera 
was  produced,  and  Bellini's  career  was  assured. 
"  I  Capuletti  "  was  his  next  successful  opera,  per- 
formed at  Venice  in  1829,  but  it  never  became 
popular  out  of  Italy. 

The  significant  period  of  Bellini's  life  was  in 
the  year  1831,  which  produced  "La  Sonnambula," 
to  be  followed  by  "  Norma "  the  next  season. 
Both  these  were  written  for  and  introduced  before 
the  Neapolitan  public.  In  these  works  he  reached 
his  highest  development,  and  by  them  he  is  best 
known  to  fame.  The  opera-story  of  "La  Sonnam- 
bula," by  Romani,  an  accomplished  writer  and  scho- 
lar, is  one  of  the  most  artistic  and  effective  ever 
put  into  the  hands  of  a  composer.  M.  Scribe  had 
already  used  the  plot  both  as  the  subject  of  a  vau- 
deville and  a  choregraphic  drama  ;  but  in  Romani's 
hands  it  became  a  symmetrical  story  full  of  poetry 
and  beauty.  The  music  of  this  opera,  throbbing 
with  pure  melody  and  simple  emotion,  as  natural 
and  fresh  as  a  bed  of  wild  flowers,  went  to  the 
heart  of  the  universal  public,  learned  and  un- 
learned ;  and,  in  spite  of  its  scientific  faults,  it  will 
never  cease  to  delight  future  generations,  as  long 
as  hearts  beat  and  eyes  are  moistened  with  human 
tenderness  and  sympathy.  And  yet,  of  this  work 
an  English  critic  wrote,  on  its  first  London  pre- 
sentation : 

"  Bellini  has  soared  too  high  ;  there  is  nothing 
of  grandeur,  no  touch  of  true  pathos  in  the  com- 


DONIZETTI   AND   BELLINI.  97 

mon-place  workings  of  his  mind.  He  cannot  reach 
the  opera  semi-seria  ;  he  should  confine  his  powers 
to  the  musical  drama,  the  one- act  opera  buffa" 
But  the  history  of  art-criticism  is  replete  with  such 
instances. 

"  Norma "  was  also  a  grand  triumph  for  the 
young  composer  from  the  outset,  especially  as 
the  lofty  character  of  the  Druid  priestess  was  sung 
by  that  unapproachable  lyric  tragedienne,  the  Sid- 
dons  of  the  opera,  Madame  Pasta.  Bellini  is  said 
to  have  had  this  queen  of  dramatic  song  in  his 
mind  in  writing  the  opera,  and  right  nobly  did  she 
vindicate  his  judgment,  for  no  European  audience 
afterward  but  was  thrilled  and  carried  away  by 
her  masterpiece  of  acting  and  singing  in  this  part. 

Bellini  himself  considered  "  Norma  "  his  chef 
cTceuvre.  A  beautiful  Parisienne  attempted  to 
extract  from  his  reluctant  lips  his  preference  of 
his  own  works.  The  lady  finally  overcame  his 
evasions  by  the  query  :  "  But  if  you  were  out  at 
sea,  and  should  be  shipwrecked —  "  "  Ah  !  "  he 
cried,  without  allowing  her  to  finish.  "  I  would 
leave  all  the  rest  and  try  to  save  '  Norma.' " 

"  I  Puritan  i "  was  composed  for  and  performed 
at  Paris  in  1834,  by  that  splendid  quartette  of 
artists,  Grisi,  Rubini,  Tamburini,  and  Lablache. 
Bellini  compelled  the  singers  to  execute  after  his 
style.  While  Rubini  was  rehearsing  the  tenor 
part,  the  composer  cried  out  in  rage  :  "  You  put 
no  life  into  your  music.  Show  some  feeling.  Don't 


98     GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

you  know  what  love  is?"  Then  changing  his 
tone  :  "  Don't  you  know  your  voice  is  a  gold- 
mine that  has  not  been  fully  explored  ?  You  are 
an  excellent  artist,  but  that  is  not  sufficient.  You 
must  forget  yourself  and  represent  Gualtiero. 
Let's  try  again."  The  tenor,  stung  by  the  admo- 
nition, then  gave  the  part  magnificently.  After 
the  success  of  "  I  Puritani,"  the  composer  received 
the  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  an  honor  then 
not  often  bestowed.  The  "Puritani"  season  is 
still  remembered,  it  is  said,  with  peculiar  pleasure ' 
by  the  older  connoisseurs  of  Paris  and  London,  as 
the  enthusiasm  awakened  in  musical  circles  has 
rarely  been  equaled. 

Bellini  had  placed  himself  under  contract  to 
write  two  new  works  immediately,  one  for  Paris, 
the  other  for  Naples,  and  retired  to  the  villa  of  a 
friend  at  Puteaux  to  insure  the  more  complete 
seclusion.  Here,  while  pursuing  his  art  with  al- 
most sleepless  ardor,  he  was  attacked  by  his  fatal 
malady,  intestinal  fever. 

"From  his  youth  up,"  says  his  biographer 
Mould,  "  Vincenzo's  eagerness  in  his  art  was  such 
as  to  keep  him  at  the  piano  night  and  day,  till  he 
was  obliged  forcibly  to  leave  it.  The  ruling  pas- 
sion accompanied  him  through  his  short  life,  and 
by  the  assiduity  with  which  he  pursued  it  brought 
on  the  dysentery  which  closed  his  brilliant  career, 
peopling  his  last,  hours  with  the  figures  of  those  to 
whom  his  works  owed  so  much  of  their  success. 


DOMZETTI   AND   BELLINI.  99 

During  the  moments  of  delirium  which  preceded 
his  death,  he  was  constantly  speaking  of  Lablache, 
Tamburini,  and  Grisi ;  and  one  of  his  last  recog- 
nizable impressions  was  that  he  was  present  at 
a  brilliant  representation  of  his  last  opera  at  the 
Salle  Favart.  His  earthly  career  closed  Septem- 
ber 23,  1835,  at  the  age  of  thirty-one. 

On  the  eve  of  his  interment,  the  Theatre  Italien 
reopened  with  the  "  Puritani."  It  was  an  occa- 
sion full  of  solemn  gloom.  Both  the  musicians 
and  audience  broke  from  time  to  time  into  sobs. 
Tamburini,  in  particular,  was  so  oppressed  by  the 
death  of  his  young  friend  that  his  vocalization, 
generally  so  perfect,  was  often  at  fault,  while  the 
faces  of  Grisi,  Rubini,  and  Lablache  too  plainly 
showed  their  aching  hearts. 

Rossini,  Cherubini,  Paer,  and  Carafa  had 
charge  of  the  funeral,  and  M.  Habeneck,  chef  cFor- 
chestre  of  the  Academic  Royale,  of  the  music. 
The  next  remarkable  piece  on  the  funeral  pro- 
gramme was  a  ^Lacrymosa  for  four  voices  without 
accompaniment,  in  which  the  text  of  the  Latin 
hymn  was  united  to  the  beautiful  tenor  melody 
in  the  third  act  of  the  "  Puritani."  This  was 
executed  by  Rubini,  Ivanoff,  Tamburini,  and  La- 
blache. The  services  were  performed  at  the  Church 
of  the  Invalides,  and  the  remains  were  interred  in 
Pere  Lachaise. 

Rossini  had  ever  shown  great  love  for  Bellini, 
and  Rosario  Bellini,  the  stricken  father,  wrote  to 


100  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

him  a  touching  letter,  in  which,  after  speaking  of 
his  grief  and  despair,  the  old  man  said  : 

"  You  always  encouraged  the  object  of  my 
eternal  regret  in  his  labors  ;  you  took  him  under 
your  protection,  you  neglected  nothing  that  could 
increase  his  glory  and  his  welfare.  After  my 
son's  death,  what  have  you  not  done  to  honor  my 
son's  name  and  render  it  dear  to  posterity  ?  I 
learned  this  from  the  newspapers  ;  and  I  am  pen- 
etrated with  gratitude  for  your  excessive  kindness 
as  well  as  for  that  of  a  number  of  distinguished 
artists,  which  also  I  shall  never  forget.  Pray,  sir, 
be  my  interpreter,  and  tell  these  artists  that  the 
father  and  family  of  Bellini,  as  well  as  of  our 
compatriots  of  Catania,  will  cherish  an  imperish- 
able recollection  of  this  generous  conduct.  I 
shall  never  cease  to  remember  how  much  you  did 
for  my  son.  I  shall  make  known  everywhere,  in 
the  midst  of  my  tears,  what  an  affectionate  heart 
belongs  to  the  great  Rossini,  and  how  kind,  hos- 
pitable, and  full  of  feeling  are  the  artists  of 
France." 

Bellini  was  affable,  sincere,  honest,  and  affec- 
tionate. Nature  gave  him  a  beautiful  and  ingenu- 
ous face,  noble  features,  large,  clear  blue  eyes,  and 
abundant  light  hair.  His  countenance  instantly 
won  on  the  regards  of  all  that  met  him.  His  dis- 
position was  melancholy  ;  a  secret  depression  often 


DONIZETTI   AND   BELLINI.  101 

crept  over  his  most  cheerful  hours.  We  are  told 
there  was  a  tender  romance  in  his  earlier  life. 
The  father  of  the  lady  he  loved,  a  Neapolitan 
judge,  refused  his  suit  on  account  of  his  inferior 
social  position.  When  Bellini  became  famous  the 
judge  wished  to  make  amends,  but  Bellini's  pride 
interfered.  Soon  after  the  young  lady,  who  loved 
him  unalterably,  died,  and  it  was  said  the  com- 
poser never  recovered  from  the  shock. 

IV. 

DONIZETTI  and  Bellini  were  peculiarly  moulded 
by  the  great  genius  of  Rossini,  but  in  their  best 
works  they  show  individuality,  color,  and  special 
creative  activity.  The  former  composer,  one  of 
the  most  affluent  in  the  annals  of  music,  seemed 
to  become  more  fresh  in  his  fancies  with  increased 
production.  He  is  an  example  of  how  little  the 
skill  and  touch,  belonging  to  unceasing  work, 
should  be  despised  in  comparison  with  what  is 
called  inspiration.  Donizetti  arrived  at  his  freshest 
creations  at  a  time  when  there  seemed  but  little  left 
for  him  except  the  trite  and  threadbare.  There 
are  no  melodies  so  rich  and  well  fancied  as  those  to 
be  found  in  his  later  works  ;  and  in  sense  of  drama- 
tic form  and  effective  instrumentation  (always  a 
faulty  point  with  Donizetti)  he  displayed  great 
progress  at  the  last.  It  is,  however,  a  noteworthy 
fact,  that  the  latest  Italian  composers  have  shown 
themselves  quite  weak  in  composing  expressly  for 


102  GREAT  ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

the  orchestra.  No  operatic  overture  since  "  Wil- 
liam Tell "  has  been  produced  by  this  school  of 
music,  worthy  to  be  rendered  in  a  concert-room. 

Donizetti  lacked  the  dramatic  instinct  in  con- 
ceiving his  music.  In  attempting  it  he  became 
hollow  and  theatric  ;  and  beautiful  as  are  the  melo- 
dies and  concerted  pieces  in  "  Lucia,"  where  the 
subject  ought  to  inspire  a  vivid  dramatic  nature 
with  such  telling  effects,  it  is  in  the  latter  sense 
one  of  the  most  disappointing  of  operas. 

He  redeemed  himself  for  the  nonce,  however, 
in  the  fourth  act  of  "  La  Favorita,"  where  there 
is  enough  musical  and  dramatic  beauty  to  condone 
the  sins  of  the  other  three  acts.  The  solemn  and 
affecting  church  chant,  the  passionate  romance  for 
the  tenor,  the  great  closing  duet  in  which  the  ecs- 
tasy of  despair  rises  to  that  of  exaltation,  the  re- 
sistless sweep  of  the  rhythm — all  mark  one  of  the 
most  effective  single  acts  ever  written.  He  showed 
himself  here  worthy  of  companionship  with  Ros- 
sini and  Meyerbeer. 

In  his  comic  operas,  "  L'Elisir  d'Amore,"  "  La 
Fille  du  Regiment,'1  and  "  Don  Pasquale,"  there 
is  a  continual  well-spring  of  sunny,  bubbling  hu- 
mor. They  are  slight,  brilliant,  and  catching, 
everything  that  pedantry  condemns,  and  the  pop- 
ular taste  delights  in.  Mendelssohn,  the  last  of 
the  German  classical  composers,  admired  "  L'Eli- 
sir "  so  much  that  he  said  he  would  have  liked  to 
have  written  it  himself.  It  may  be  said  that  while 


DONIZETTI   AND   BELLINI.  103 

Donizetti  lacks  grand  conceptions,  or  even  great 
beauties  for  the  most  part,  his  operas  contain  so 
much  that  is  agreeable,  so  many  excellent  oppor- 
tunities for  vocal  display,  such  harmony  between 
sound  and  situation,  that  he  will  probably  retain 
a  hold  on  the  stage  when  much  greater  composers 
are  only  known  to  the  general  public  by  name. 

Bellini,  with  less  fertility  and  grace,  possessed 
far  more  picturesqueness  and  intensity.  His 
powers  of  imagination  transcended  his  command 
over  the  working  tools  of  his  art.  Even  more 
lacking  in  exact  and  extended  musical  science 
than  Donizetti,  he  could  express  what  came  with- 
in his  range  with  a  simple  vigor,  grasp,  and  beauty, 
which  make  him  a  truly  dramatic  composer.  In 
addition  to  this,  a  matter  which  many  great  com- 
posers ignore,  Bellini  had  extraordinary  skill  in 
writing  music  for  the  voice,  not  that  which  merely 
gave  opportunity  for  executive  trickery  and  em- 
bellishment, but  the  genuine  accents  of  passion, 
pathos,  and  tenderness,  in  forms  best  adapted  to 
be  easily  and  effectively  delivered. 

He  had  no  flexibility,  no  command  over  mirth- 
ful inspiration,  such  as  we  hear  in  Mozart,  Ros- 
sini, or  even  Donizetti.  But  his  monotone  is  in 
subtile  rapport  with  the  graver  aspects  of  nature 
and  life.  Chorley  sums  up  this  characteristic  of 
Bellini  in  the  following  words  : 

"  In  spite  of  the  inexperience  with  which  the 
instrumental  score  is  filled  up,  the  opening  scene 


104  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

of  '  Norma '  in  the  dim  druidical  wood  bears  the 
true  character  of  ancient  sylvan  antiquity.  There 
is  daybreak  again — a  fresh  tone  of  reveille — in 
the  prelude  to  *  I  Puritani.'  If  Bellini's  genius 
was  not  versatile  in  its  means  of  expression,  if  it 
had  not  gathered  all  the  appliances  by  which  sci- 
ence fertilizes  Nature,  it  beyond  all  doubt  included 
appreciation  of  truth,  no  less  than  instinct  for 
beauty. 


VERDI. 


IN  1872  the  Khedive  of  Egypt,  an  oriental 
ruler,  whose  love  of  western  art  and  civilization 
has  since  tangled  him  in  economic  meshes  to 
escape  from  which  has  cost  him  his  independence, 
produced  a  new  opera  with  barbaric  splendor  of 
appointments,  at  Grand  Cairo.  The  spacious 
theatre  blazed  with  fantastic  dresses  and  showy 
uniforms,  and  the  curtain  rose  on  a  drama  which 
gave  a  glimpse  to  the  Arabs,  Copts,  and  Francs 
present  of  the  life  and  religion,  the  loves  and 
hates  of  ancient  Pharaonic  times,  set  to  music  by 
the  most  celebrated  of  living  Italian  composers. 

That  an  eastern  prince  should  have  commis- 
sioned Giuseppe  Verdi  to  write  "  Aida  "  for  him, 
in  his  desire  to  emulate  western  sovereigns  as  a 


GIUSEPPE   VERDI. 


VERDI.  105 

patron  of  art,  is  an  interesting  fact,  but  not  won- 
derful or  significant. 

The  opera  itself  was  freighted,  however,  with 
peculiar  significance  as  an  artistic  work,  far  sur- 
passing that  of  the  circumstances  which  gave  it 
origin,  or  which  saw  its  first  production  in  the 
mysterious  land  of  the  Nile  and  Sphinx. 

Originally  a  pupil,  thoroughly  imbued  with 
the  method  and  spirit  of  Rossini,  though  never 
lacking  in  original  quality,  Verdi  as  a  young  man 
shared  the  suffrages  of  admiring  audiences  with 
Donizetti  and  Bellini.  Even  when  he  diverged 
widely  from  his  parent  stem  and  took  rank  as  the 
representative  of  the  melodramatic  school  of  mu- 
sic, he  remained  true  to  the  instincts  of  his  Ital- 
ian training. 

The  remarkable  fact  is  that  Verdi,  at  the  age 
of  fifty-eight,  when  it  might  have  been  safely  as- 
sumed that  his  theories  and  preferences  were 
finally  crystallized,  produced  an  opera  in  which 
he  clasped  hands  with  the  German  enthusiast,  who 
preached  an  art  system  radically  opposed  to  his 
own  and  lashed  with  scathing  satire  the  whole 
musical  cult  of  the  Italian  race. 

In  "  Aida  "  and  the  "  Manzoni  Mass,"  written 
in  1873,  Verdi,  the  leader  among  living  Italian 
composers,  practically  conceded  that,  in  the  long, 
bitterly  fought  battle  between  Teuton  and  Italian 
in  music,  the  former  was  the  victor.  In  the  opera 
we  find  a  new  departure,  which,  if  not  embodying 


10G  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

all  the  philosophy  of  the  "  new  school,"  is  stamped 
with  its  salient  traits,  viz.  :  The  subordination  of 
all  the  individual  effects  to  the  perfection  and 
symmetry  of  the  whole  ;  a  lavish  demand  on  all 
the  sister  arts  to  contribute  their  rich  gifts  to  the 
heightening  of  the  illusion  ;  a  tendency  to  enrich 
the  harmonic  value  in  the  choruses,  the  concerted 
pieces,  and  the  instrumentation,  to  the  great  sacri- 
fice of  the  solo  pieces  ;  the  use  of  the  heroic  and 
mythical  element  as  a  theme. 

Verdi,  the  subject  of  this  interesting  revolu- 
tion, has  filled  a  very  brilliant  place  in  modern 
musical  art,  and  his  career  has  been  in  some  ways 
as  picturesque  as  his  music. 

Verdi's  parents  were  literally  hewers  of  wood 
and  drawers  of  water,  earning  their  bread,  after 
the  manner  of  Italian  peasants,  at  a  small  set- 
tlement called  La  Roncali,  near  Busseto,  where 
the  future  composer  was  born  on  October  9, 
1814. 

His  earliest  recollections  were  with  the  little 
village  church,  where  the  little  Giuseppe  listened 
with  delight  to  the  church  organ,  for,  as  with  all 
great  musicians,  his  fondness  for  music  showed 
itself  at  a  very  early  age.  The  elder  Verdi, 
though  very  poor,  gratified  the  child's  love  of 
music  when  he  was  about  eight  by  buying  a  small 
spinet,  and  placing  him  under  the  instruction  of 
Provesi,  a  teacher  in  Busseto.  The  boy  entered 
on  his  studies  with  ardor,  and  made  more  rapid 


VERDI.  107 

progress  than  the  slender  facilities  which  were 
allowed  him  would  ordinarily  justify. 

An  event  soon  occurred  which  was  destined  to 
wield  a  lasting  influence  on  his  destiny.  He  one 
day  heard  a  skillful  performance  on  a  fine  piano, 
while  passing  by  one  of  the  better  houses  of  Bus- 
seto.  From  that  time  a  constant  fascination  drew 
him  to  the  house  ;  for  day  after  day  he  lingered 
and  seemed  unwilling  to  go  away  lest  he  should 
perchance  lose  some  of  the  enchanting  sounds 
which  so  enraptured  him.  The  owner  of  the 
premises  was  a  rich  merchant,  one  Antonio  Barez- 
zi,  a  cultivated  and  high-minded  man,  and  a  pas- 
sionate lover  of  music  withal.  'Twas  his  daugh- 
ter whose  playing  gave  the  young  Verdi  such 
pleasure. 

Signer  Barezzi  had  often  seen  the  lingering 
and  absorbed  lad,  who  stood  as  if  in  a  dream,. obli- 
vious to  all  that  passed  around  him  in  the  practi- 
cal work-a-day  world.  So  one  day  he  accosted 
him  pleasantly  and  inquired  why  he  came  so  con- 
stantly and  stayed  so  long  doing  nothing. 

"  I  play  the  piano  a  little,"  said  the  boy,  "  and 
I  like  to  come  here  and  listen  to  the  fine  playing 
in  your  house." 

"  Oh  !  if  that  is  the  case,  come  in  with  me  that 
you  may  enjoy  it  more  at  your  ease,  and  hereafter 
you  are  welcome  to  do  so  whenever  you  feel  in- 
clined." 

It  may  be  imagined  the  delighted  boy  did  not 


108  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

refuse  the  kind  invitation,  and  the  acquaintance 
soon  ripened  into  intimacy,  for  the  rich  merchant 
learned  to  regard  the  bright  young  musician  with 
much  affection,  which  it  is  needless  to  say  was 
warmly  returned.  Verdi  was  untiring  in  study 
and  spent  the  early  years  of  his  youth  in  humble 
quiet,  in  the  midst  of  those  beauties  of  nature 
which  have  so  powerful  an  influence  in  molding 
great  susceptibilities.  At  his  seventeenth  year  he 
had  acquired  as  much  musical  knowledge  as  could 
be  acquired  at  a  place  like  Busseto,  and  he  became 
anxious  to  go  to  Milan  to  continue  his  studies. 
The  poverty  of  his  family  precluding  any  assist- 
ance from  this  quarter,  he  was  obliged  to  find  help 
from  an  eleemosynary  fund  then  existing  in  his 
native  town.  This  was  an  institution  called  the 
Monte  di  Pieta,  which  offered  yearly  to  four 
young  men  the  sum  of  twenty-five  lire  a  month 
each,  in  order  to  help  them  to  an  education  ;  and 
Verdi,  making  an  application  and  sustained  by 
the  influence  of  his  friend  the  rich  merchant,  was 
one  of  the  four  whose  good  fortune  it  was  to  be 
selected. 

The  allowance  thus  obtained  with  some  assist- 
ance from  Barezzi  enabled  the  ambitious  young 
musician  to  go  to  Milan,  carrying  with  him  some 
of  his  compositions.  When  he  presented  himself 
for  examination  at  the  conservatory,  he  was  made 
to  play  on  the  piano,  and  his  compositions  exam- 
ined. The  result  fell  on  his  hopes  like  a  thunder- 


VERDI.  109 

bolt.  The  pedantic  and  narrow-minded  examiners 
not  only  scoffed  at  the  state  of  his  musical  knowl- 
edge, but  told  him  he  was  incapable  of  becoming 
a  musician.  To  weaker  souls  this  would  have 
been  a  terrible  discouragement,  but  to  his  ardor 
and  self-confidence  it  was  only  a  challenge.  Ba- 
rez.zi  had  equal  confidence  in  the  abilities  of  his 
protege,  and  warmly  encouraged  him  to  work  and 
hope.  VerJi  engaged  an  excellent  private  teacher 
and  pursued  his  studies  with  unflagging  energy, 
denying  himself  all  but  the  barest  necessities,  and 
going  sometimes  without  sufficient  food. 

A  stroke  of  fortune  now  fell  in  his  way  ;  the 
place  of  organist  fell  vacant  at  the  Busseto  church, 
and  Verdi  was  appointed  to  fill  it.  He  returned 
home,  and  was  soon  afterward  married  to  the 
daughter  of  the  benefactor  to  whom  he  owed  so 
much.  He  continued  to  apply  himself  with  great 
diligence  to  the  study  of  his  art,  and  completed 
an  opera  early  in  1839.  He  succeeded  in  arrang- 
ing for  the  production  of  this  work,  "  L'Oberto, 
Conte  de  San  Bonifacio,"  at  La  Scala,  Milan  ; 
but  it  excited  little  comment  and  was  soon  for- 
gotten, like  the  scores  of  other  shallow  or  imma- 
ture compositions  so  prolifically  produced  in  Italy. 

The  impresario,  Merelli,  believed  in  the  young 
composer  though,  for  he  thought  he  discovered 
signs  of  genius.  So  he  gave  him  a  contract  to 
write  three  operas,  one  of  which  was  to  be  an 
opera  buffa,  and  to  be  ready  in  the  following  au- 


110  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

tumn.  With  hopeful  spirits  Verdi  set  to  work 
on  the  opera,  but  that  year  of  1840  was  to  be 
one  of  great  trouble  and  trial.  Hardly  had  he 
set  to  work  all  afire  with  eagerness  and  hope, 
when  he  was  seized  with  severe  illness.  Ili.s 
recovery  was  followed  by  the  successive  sick- 
ening of  his  two  children,  who  died,  a  terrible 
blow  to  the  father's  fond  heart.  Fate  had  the 
crowning  stroke  though  still  to  give,  for  the 
young  mother,  agonized  by  this  loss,  was  seized 
with  a  fatal  inflammation  of  the  brain.  Thus 
within  a  brief  period  Verdi  was  bereft  of  all  the 
sweet  consolations  of  home,  and  his  life  became 
a  burden  to  him.  Under  these  conditions  he  was 
to  write  a  comic  opera,  full  of  sparkle,  gayety, 
and  humor.  Can  we  wonder  that  his  work  was 
a  failure  ?  The  public  came  to  be  amused  by 
bright,  joyous  music,  for  it  was  nothing  to  them 
that  the  composer's  heart  was  dead  with  grief  at 
his  afflictions.  The  audience  hissed  "  Un  Giorno 
di  Regno,"  for  it  proved  a  funereal  attempt  at 
mirth.  So  Verdi  sought  to  annul  the  contract. 

To  this  the  impresario  replied  : 

"  So  be  it,  if  you  wish  ;  but,  whenever  you 
want  to  write  again  on  the  same  terms,  you  will 
find  me  ready." 

To  tell  the  truth,  the  composer  was  discour- 
aged by  his  want  of  success,  and  wholly  broken 
down  by  his  numerous  trials.  He  now  withdrew 
from  all  society,  and,  having  hired  a  small  room 


VERDI.  HI 

in  an  out-of-the-way  part  of  Milan,  passed  most 
of  his  time  in  reading  the  worst  books  that  could 
be  found,  rarely  going  out,  unless  occasionally  in 
the  evening,  never  giving  his  attention  to  study 
of  any  kind,  and  never  touching  the  piano.  Such 
was  his  life  from  October,  1840,  to  January,  1 841 . 
One  evening,  early  in  the  new  year,  while  out 
walking,  he  chanced  to  meet  Merelli,  who  took 
him  by  the  arm  ;  and,  as  they  sauntered  toward 
the  theatre,  the  impresario  told  him  that  he  was 
in  great  trouble,  Nicolai,  who  was  to  write  an 
opera  for  him,  having  refused  to  accept  a  libretto 
entitled  "  Nabucco." 

To  this  Verdi  replied  : 

"  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  relieve  you  of  your 
difficulty.  Don't  you  remember  the  libretto  of 
'  II  Proscritto,'  which  you  procured  for  me,  and 
for  which  I  have  never  composed  the  music  ? 
Give  that  to  Nicolai  in  place  of  '  Nabucco.' " 

Merelli  thanked  him  for  his  kind  offer,  and, 
as  they  reached  the  theatre,  asked  him  to  go  in, 
that  they  might  ascertain  whether  the  manuscript 
of  "  II  Proscritto  "  was  really  there.  It  was  at 
length  found,  and  Verdi  was  on  the  point  of 
leaving,  when  Merelli  slipped  into  his  pocket  the 
book  of  "  Nabucco,"  asking  him  to  look  it  over. 
For  Vant  of  something  to  do,  he  took  up  the 
drama  the  next  morning  and  read  it  through, 
realizing  how  truly  grand  it  was  in  conception. 
But,  as  a  lover  forces  himself  to  feign  indifference 


112  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

to  his  coquettish  innamorata,  so  he,  disregarding 
his  inclinations,  returned  the  manuscript  to  Me- 
relli  that  same  day. 

"  Well  ?  "  said  Merelli,  inquiringly. 

"  Musicabilissimo  !  "  he  replied  ;  "  full  of  dra- 
matic power  and  telling  situations  !  " 

"  Take  it  home  with  you,  then,  and  write  the 
music  for  it." 

Verdi  declared  that  he  did  not  wish  to  com- 
pose, but  the  worthy  impresario  forced  the  manu- 
script on  him,  and  persisted  that  he  should  under- 
take the  work.  The  composer  returned  home 
with  the  libretto,  but  threw  it  on  one  side  without 
looking  at  it,  and  for  the  next  five  months  con- 
tinued his  reading  of  bad  romances  and  yellow- 
covered  novels. 

The  impulse  of  work  soon  came  again,  how- 
ever. One  beautiful  June  day  the  manuscript 
met  his  eye,  while  looking  listlessly  over  some 
old  papers.  He  read  one  scene  and  was  struck  by 
its  beauty.  The  instinct  of  musical  creation 
rushed  over  him  with  irresistible  force  ;  he  seated 
himself  at  the  piano,  so  long  silent,  and  began 
composing  the  music.  The  ice  was  broken.  Verdi 
soon  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  work,  and  in  three 
months  "  Nabucco"  was  entirely  completed.  Me- 
relli gladly  accepted  it,  and  it  was  performed  at 
La  Scala  in  the  spring  of  1842.  As  a  result 
Verdi  was  besieged  with  petitions  for  new  works 
from  every  impresario  in  Italy. 


VERDI.  113 

II. 

FROM  1842  to  1851  Verdi's  busy  imagination 
produced  a  series  of  operas,  which  disputed  the 
palm  of  popularity  with  the  foremost  composers 
of  his  time.  "  I  Lombardi,"  brought  out  at  La 
Scala  in  1843  ;  " Ernani,"  at  Venice  in  1844 ;  "I 
Due  Foscari,"  at  Rome  in  1844 ;  "  Giovanna 
D'Arco,"  at  Milan,  and  "Alzira,"  at  Naples  in 
1845;  "Attila,"  at  Venice  in  1846;  and  "Mac- 
betto,"  at  Florence  in  1847,  were— all  of  them — 
successful  works.  The  last  created  such  a  genu- 
ine enthusiasm  that  he  was  crowned  with  a  golden 
laurel  wreath  and  escorted  home  from  the  theatre 
by  an  enormous  crowd.  "I  Masnadieri"  was 
written  for  Jenny  Lind,  and  performed  first  in 
London  in  1847  with  that  great  singer,  Gardoni, 
and  Lablache,  in  the  cast.  His  next  productions 
were  "  II  Corsaro,"  brought  out  at  Trieste  in  1848  ; 
"  La  Battaglia  di  Legnano "  at  Rome  in  1849 ; 
"  Luisa  Miller  "  at  Naples  in  the  same  year  ;  and 
"  Stiff elio  "  at  Trieste  in  1850.  By  this  series  of 
works  Verdi  impressed  himself  powerfully  on  his 
age,  but  in  them  he  preserved  faithfully  the  color 
and  style  of  the  school  in  which  he  had  been 
trained.  But  he  had  now  arrived  at  the  com- 
mencement of  his  transition  period.  A  distin- 
guished French  critic  marks  this  change  in  the 
following  summary :  "  When  Verdi  began  to 
write,  the  influences  of  foreign  literature  and  new 


114  GREAT   ITALIAN   AXD   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

theories  on  art  had  excited  Italian  composers  to 
seek  a  violent  expression  of  the  passions,  and  to 
leave  the  interpretation  of  amiable  and  delicate 
sentiments  for  that  of  sombre  flights  of  the  soul. 
A  serious  mind  gifted  with  a  rich  imagination, 
Verdi  became  the  chief  of  the  new  school.  His 
music  became  more  intense  and  dramatic ;  by 
vigor,  energy,  verve,  a  certain  ruggedness  and 
sharpness,  by  powerful  effects  of  sound,  he  con- 
quered an  immense  popularity  in  Italy,  where 
success  had  hitherto  been  attained  only  by  the 
charm,  suavity,  and  abundance  of  the  melodies 
produced." 

In  "  Rigoletto,"  produced  in  Venice  in  1851, 
the  full  flowering  of  his  genius  into  the  melodra- 
matic style  was  signally  shown.  The  opera  story 
adapted  from  Victor  Hugo's  "Le  Roi  s'amuse" 
is  itself  one  of  the  most  dramatic  of  plots,  and 
it  seemed  to  have  fired  the  composer  into  music 
singularly  vigorous,  full  of  startling  effects  and 
novel  treatment.  Two  years  afterward  were 
brought  out  at  Rome  and  Venice  respectively  two 
operas,  stamped  with  the  same  salient  qualities, 
"II  Trovatore"  and  "La  Traviata,"  the  last  a 
lyric  adaptation  of  Dumas^s's  "  Dame  aux  Came- 
lias."  These  three  operas  have  generally  been 
considered  his  masterpieces,  though  it  is  more 
than  possible  that  the  riper  judgment  of  the  future 
will  riot  sustain  this  claim.  Their  popularity  was 
such  that  Verdi's  time  was  absorbed  for  several 


VERDI.  115 

years  in  their  production  at  various  opera-houses, 
utterly  precluding  new  compositions.  Of  his  later 
operas  may  be  mentioned  "Les  Vepres  Sicili- 
ennes,"  produced  in  Paris  in  1855  ;  "  Un  Ballo  in 
Maschera,"  performed  at  Rome  in  1859 ;  "  La 
Forza  del  Destino,"  written  for  St.  Petersburg, 
where  it  was  sung  in  1863 ;  "  Don  Carlos,"  pro- 
duced in  London  in  1867 ;  and  "  Aida  "  in  Grand 
Cairo  in  1872.  When  the  latter  work  was  fin- 
ished, Verdi  had  composed  twenty-nine  operas, 
beside  lesser  works,  and  attained  the  age  of  fifty- 
seven. 

Verdi's  energies  have  not  been  confined  to 
music.  An  ardent  patriot,  he  has  displayed  the 
deepest  interest  in  the  affairs  of  his  country,  and 
taken  an  active  part  in  its  tangled  politics.  After 
the  war  of  1859  he  was  chosen  a  member  of  the 
Assembly  of  Parma,  and  was  one  of  the  most  in- 
fluential advocates  for  the  annexation  to  Sardinia. 
Italian  unity  found  in  him  a  passionate  advocate, 
and,  when  the  occasion  came,  his  artistic  talent 
and  earnestness  proved  that  they  might  have 
made  a  vigorous  mark  in  political  oratory  as  well 
as  in  music. 

The  cry  of  "  Viva  Verdi "  often  resounded 
through  Sardinia  and  Italy,  and  it  was  one  of  the 
war-slogans  of  the  Italian  war  of  liberation.  This 
enigma  is  explained  in  the  fact  that  the  five  let- 
ters of  his  name  are  the  initials  of  those  of  Vitto- 
rio  Emanuele  Re  D'ltalia.  His  private  resources 


116  GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

were  liberally  poured  forth  to  help  the  national 
cause,  and  in  1861  he  was  chosen  a  deputy  in 
Parliament  from  Parma.  Ten  years  later  he  was 
appointed  by  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction 
to  superintend  the  reorganization  of  the  National 
Musical  Institute. 

The  many  decorations  and  titular  distinctions 
lavished  on  him  show  the  high  esteem  in  which 
he  is  held.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor,  corresponding  member  of  the  French 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  grand  cross  of  the  Prus- 
sian order  of  St.  Stanislaus,  of  the  order  of  the 
Crown  of  Italy,  and  of  the  Egyptian  order  of  Os- 
manli.  He  divides  his  life  between  a  beautiful 
residence  at  Genoa,  where  he  overlooks  the  waters 
of  the  sparkling  Mediterranean,  and  a  country 
villa  near  his  native  Busseto,  a  house  of  quaint 
artistic  architecture,  approached  by  a  venerable, 
moss-grown  stone  bridge,  at  the  foot  of  which  are 
a  large  park  and  artificial  lake.  When  he  takes 
his  evening  walks,  the  peasantry,  who  are  devoted- 
ly attached  to  him,  unite  in  singing  choruses  from 
his  operas. 

In  Verdi's  bedroom,  where  alone  he  composes, 
is  a  fine  piano — of  which  instrument,  as  well  as  of 
the  violin,  he  is  a  master — a  modest  library,  and 
an  oddly-shaped  writing-desk.  Pictures  and  statu- 
ettes, of  which  he  is  very  fond,  are  thickly  strewn 
about  the  whole  house.  Verdi  is  a  man  of  vigor 
ous  and  active  habits,  taking  an  ardent  interest 


VERDI.  117 

in  agriculture.  But  the  larger  part  of  his  time  is 
taken  up  in  composing,  writing  letters,  and  read- 
ing works  on  philosophy,  politics,  and  history. 
His  personal  appearance  is  very  distinguished.  A 
tall  figure  with  sturdy  limbs  and  square  shoulders, 
surmounted  by  a  finely-shaped  head  ;  abundant 
hair,  beard,  and  mustache,  whose  black  is  sprin- 
kled with  gray  ;  dark-gray  eyes,  regular  features, 
and  an  earnest,  sometimes  intense,  expression 
make  him  a  noticeable-looking  man.  Much  sought 
after  in  the  brilliant  society  of  Florence,  Rome, 
and  Paris,  our  composer  spends  most  of  his  time 
in  the  elegant  seclusion  of  home. 

in. 

VERDI  is  the  most  nervous,  theatric,  sensuous 
composer  of  the  present  century.  Measured  by 
the  highest  standard,  his  style  must  be  criticised 
as  often  spasmodic,  tawdry,  and  meretricious. 
He  instinctively  adopts  a  bold  an  1  eccentric  treat- 
ment of  musical  themes  ;  and,  though  there  are 
always  to  be  found  stirring  movements  in  his 
scores  as  well  as  in  his  opera  stories,  he  constantly 
offends  refined  taste  by  sensation  and  violence. 

With  a  redundancy  of  melody,  too  often  of 
the  cheap  and  shallow  kind,  he  rarely  fails  to 
please  the  masses  of  opera-goers,  for  his  works 
enjoy  a  popularity  not  shared  at  present  by  any 
other  composer.  In  Verdi  a  sudden  blaze  of 
song,  brief  spirited  airs,  duets,  trios,  etc.,  take  the 


118  GREAT  ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

place  of  the  elaborate  and  beautiful  music,  chis- 
eled into  order  and  symmetry,  which  character- 
izes most  of  the  great  composers  of  the  past. 
Energy  of  immediate  impression  is  thus  gained  at 
the  expense  of  that  deep,  lingering  power,  full  of 
the  subtile  side-lights  and  shadows  of  suggestion, 
which  is  the  crowning  benison  of  great  music. 
He  stuns  the  ear  and  captivates  the  senses,  but 
does  not  subdue  the  soul. 

Yet,  despite  the  grievous  faults  of  these  ope- 
ras, they  blaze  with  gems,  and  we  catch  here 
and  there  true  swallow-flights  of  genius,  that  the 
noblest  would  not  disown.  With  all  his  pueril- 
ities there  is  a  mixture  of  grandeur.  There  are 
passages  in  "  Ernani,"  "Rigoletto,"  "  Traviata," 
"  Trovatore,"  and  "  Aida,"  so  strong  and  digni- 
fied, that  it  provokes  a  wonder  that  one  with  such 
capacity  for  greatness  should  often  descend  into 
such  bathos. 

To  better  illustrate  the  false  art  which  mars 
so  much  of  Verdi's  dramatic  method,  a  compari- 
son between  his  "  Rigoletto,"  so  often  claimed  as 
his  best  work,  and  Rossini's  "  Otello  "  will  be  op- 
portune. The  air  sung  by  Gilda  in  the  "  Rigo- 
letto," when  she  retires  to  sleep  on  the  eve  of  the 
outrage,  is  an  empty,  sentimental  yawn  ;  and  in 
the  quartet  of  the  last  act,  a  noble  dramatic  op- 
portunity, she  ejects  a  chain  of  disconnected,  un- 
musical sobs,  as  offensive  as  Violettd's  consump- 
tive cough.  Desdeiuona's  agitated  air,  on  the 


VERDI.  110 

other  hand,  under  Rossini's  treatment,  though 
broken  short  in  the  vocal  phrase,  is  magnificently 
sustained  by  the  orchestra,  and  a  genuine  passion 
is  made  consistently  musical  ;  and  then  the  won- 
derful burst  of  bravura,  where  despair  and  reso- 
lution run  riot  without  violating  the  bonds  of 
strict  beauty  in  music — these  are  master-strokes 
of  genius  restrained  by  art. 

In  Verdi's  earlier  manner  the  melodramatic 
sense  completly  dominated  his  art  ideas.  Pic- 
turesque and  charming  as  he  was,  thoroughly  in 
earnest,  and  bold  in  execution,  passion  in  the 
operas  of  that  period  frequently  degenerated  into 
sentimentality  and  hysteria.  But  with  "Aida" 
we  see  the  profound  influence  of  that  wave  of 
musical  reform  which  had  begun  to  startle  the 
attention  of  the  world.  In  this  fine  opera  there 
is  almost  a  radical  revolution  of  method.  The 
noble  orchestration,  the  power  and  beauty  of  the 
choruses,  the  sustained  dignity  of  treatment,  the 
seriousness  and  pathos  of  the  whole  work,  reveal 
how  deeply  a  new  spirit  had  been  fermenting  in 
the  composer's  development.  In  the  tragic 
beauty  of  the  story,  too,  one  observes  how  much 
greater  stress  the  composer  had  begun  to  lay 
on  the  work  of  the  libretto.  All  these  traits 
were  noticeable  in  the  opera  of  "  Montezuma," 
produced  at  La  Scala,  Milan,  in  1878,  though  it 
did  not  attain  more  than  moderate  esteem.  In 
Verdi's  subsequent  works  the  new  method  has 


120   GREAT    ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

persistently  governed  him.  The  poem  of  "  Otello  " 
was  written  by  Arrigo  Bo'ito,  noted  alike  as  poet 
and  musician,  whose  opera  of  "  Mefislofile  "  ranks 
among  the  finest  musical  works  of  recent  years. 
"  Otello "  was  produced  at  La  Scala,  Milan,  in 
1887,  and  since  has  been  given  in  New  York, 
Paris,  and  London.  "  Falstaff ,"  Verdi's  first  comic 
opera,  the  libretto  of  which  was  also  written  by 
Boito  from  the  standpoint  of  the  poet,  not  of  the 
mere  plot-maker,  was  given  to  the  world  in  Milan 
in  the  winter  of  1892-'93,  and  was  reproduced  in 
Paris  in  the  spring  of  1894.  Both  these  operas 
are  composed  in  a  broad,  noble  style,  and,  with 
no  diminution  of  Verdi's  almost  unrivaled  charm 
of  melody,  are  built  with  a  symmetry  of  design 
and  fullness  of  poetic  spirit  which  prove  how 
splendidly  the  composer  has  ripened  in  his  old 


CHERUBINI  AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS. 


IN  France,  as  in  Italy,  the  regular  musical 
drama  was  preceded  by  mysteries,  masks,  and  re- 
ligious plays,  which  introduced  short  musical 
parts,  as  also  action,  mechanical  effects,  and  dan- 
cing. The  ballet,  however,  where  dancing  was 


CIIEUUmxI  AND   HIS  PREDECESSORS.         121 

the  prominent  feature,  remained  for  a  long  time 
the  favorite  amusement  of  the  French  court 
until  the  advent  of  Jean  Baptiste  Lulli.  The 
young  Florentine,  after  having  served  in  the 
king's  band,  was  promoted  to  be  its  chief,  and 
the  composer  of  the  music  of  the  court  ballets. 
Lulli,  born  in  1G33,  was  bought  of  his  parents  by 
Chevalier  de  Guise,  and  sent  to  Paris  as  a  present 
to  Mile,  de  Montpensier,  the  king's  niece.  His 
capricious  mistress,  after  a  year  or  two,  deposed 
the  boy  of  fifteen  from  the  position  of  page  to 
that  of  scullion  ;  but  Count  Nogent,  accidentally 
hearing  him  sing  and  struck  by  his  musical  talent, 
influenced  the  princess  to  place  him  under  the 
care  of  good  masters.  Lulli  made  such  rapid 
progress  that  he  soon  commenced  to  compose  mu- 
sic of  a  style  superior  to  that  before  current  in 
divertissements  of  the  French  court. 

The  name  of  Philippe  Quinault  is  closely  asso- 
ciated with  the  musical  career  of  Lulli  ;  for  to  the 
poet  the  musician  was  indebted  for  his  best  libret- 
tos. Born  at  Paris  in  1636,  Quinault's  genius  for 
poetry  displayed  itself  at  an  early  age.  Before 
he  was  twenty  he  had  written  several  successful 
comedies.  Though  he  produced  many  plays,  both 
tragedies  and  comedies,  well  known  to  readers  of 
French  poetry,  his  operatic  poems  are  those  which 
have  rendered  his  memory  illustrious.  He  died 
on  November  29, 1688.  It  is  said  that  during  his 
last  illness  he  was  extremely  penitent  on  account 


122  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND    FRENCH    COMPOSERS. 

of  the  voluptuous  tendency  of  his  works.  All 
his  lyrical  dramas  are  full  of  beauty,  but  "  Atys," 
"  Phaeton,"  "  Isis,"  and  "  Armide  "  have  been 
ranked  the  'highest.  "  Armide  "  was  the  last  of 
the  poet's  efforts,  and  Lulli  was  so  much  in  love 
with  the  opera,  when  completed,  that  he  had  it 
performed  over  and  over  again  for  his  own  plea- 
sure without  any  other  auditor.  When  "  Atys  " 
was  performed  first  in  1676,  the  eager  throng 
began  to  pour  in  the  theatre  at  ten  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  by  noon  the  building  was  filled. 
The  King  and  the  Count  were  charmed  with  the 
work  in  spite  of  the  bitter  dislike  of  Boileau, 
the  Aristarchus  of  his  age.  "  Put  me  in  a  place 
where  I  shall  not  be  able  to  hear  the  words,"  said 
the  latter  to  the  box-keeper  ;  "I  like  Lulli's music 
very  much,  but  have  a  sovereign  contempt  for 
Quinault's  words."  Lulli  obliged  the  poet  to 
write  "  Armide  "  five  times  over,  and  the  felicity 
of  his  treatment  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  Gluck 
afterward  set  the  same  poem  to  the  music  which 
is  still  occasionally  sung  in  Germany. 

Lulli  in  the  course  of  his  musical  career  be- 
came so  great  a  favorite  with  the  King  that  the 
originally  obscure  kitchen-boy  was  ennobled.  He 
was  made  one  of  the  King's  secretaries  in  spite  of 
the  loud  murmurs  of  this  pampered  fraternity 
against  receiving  into  their  body  a  player  and  a 
buffoon.  The  musician's  wit  and  affability,  how- 
ever, finally  dissipated  these  prejudices,  especially 


C1IERUIHXI    AND    HIS    PREDECESSORS.         123 

as  he  was  wealthy  and  of  irreproachable  charac- 
ter. 

The  King  having  had  a  severe  illness  in  1686, 
Lulli  composed  a  "  Te  Deum  "  in  honor  of  his  re- 
covery. When  this  was  given,  the  musician,  in 
beating  time  with  great  ardor,  struck  his  toe  with 
his  baton.  This  brought  on  a  mortification,  and 
there  was  great  grief  when  it  was  announced  that 
he  could  not  recover.  The  Princes  de  Vendome 
lodged  four  thousand  pistoles  in  the  hands  of  a 
banker,  to  be  paid  to  any  physician  who  would 
cure  him.  Shortly  before  his  death  his  confessor 
severely  reproached  him  for  the  licentiousness  of 
his  operas,  and  refused  to  give  him  absolution  un- 
less he  consented  to  burn  the  score  of  "  Achille  et 
Polyxene,"  which  was  ready  for  the  stage.  The 
manuscript  was  put  into  the  flames,  and  the  priest 
made  the  musician's  peace  with  God.  One  of  the 
young  princes  visited  him  a  few  days  after,  when 
he  seemed  a  little  better. 

"  What,  Baptiste,"  the  former  said,  "  have  you 
burned  your  opera  ?  You  were  a  fool  for  giving 
such  credit  to  a  gloomy  confessor  and  burning 
good  music." 

"  Hush,  hush  !  "  whispered  Lulli  with  a  satiri- 
cal smile  on  his  lip.  "  I  cheated  the  good  father. 
I  only  burned  a  copy. " 

He  died  singing  the  words,  "  II  faut  mourir, 
pecheur,  il  faut  mourir"  to  one  of  his  own  opera 
airs. 


124  GREAT    ITALIAN'    A XI)    FRKXCIl    COMPOSERS. 

Lulli  was  not  only  a  composer,  but  created  his 
own  orchestra,  trained  his  artists  in  acting  and 
singing,  and  was  machinist  as  well  as  ballet-mas- 
ter and  music-director.  He  was  intimate  with 
Corneille,  Moliere,  La  Fontaine,  and  Boileau  ;  and 
these  great  men  were  proud  to  contribute  the  texts 
to  which  he  set  his  music.  He  introduced  female 
dancers  into  the  ballet,  disguised  men  having 
hitherto  served  in  this  capacity,  and  in  many  es- 
sential ways  was  the  father  of  early  French  opera, 
though  its  foundation  had  been  laid  by  Cardinal 
Mazarin.  He  had  to  fight  against  opposition  and 
cabals,  but  his  energy,  tact,  and  persistence  made 
him  the  victor,  and  won  the  friendship  of  the 
leading  men  of  his  time.  Such  of  his  music  as 
still  exists  is  of  a  pleasing  and  melodious  charac- 
ter, full  of  vivacity  and  fire,  and  at  times  indicates 
a  more  deep  and  serious  power  than  that  of  merely 
creating  catching  and  tuneful  airs.  He  was  the 
inventor  of  the  operatic  overture,  and  introduced 
several  new  instruments  into  the  orchestra.  Apart 
from  his  splendid  administrative  faculty,  he  is  en- 
titled to  rank  as  an  original  and  gifted,  if  not  a 
great,  composer. 

A  lively  sketch  of  the  French  opera  of  this 
period  is  given  by  Addison  in  No.  29  of  the 
"Spectator."  "The  music  of  the  French,"  he 
says,  "  is  indeed  very  properly  adapted  to  their 
pronunciation  and  accent,  as  their  whole  opera 
wonderfully  favors  the  genius  of  such  a  gay,  airy 


GHERURIXI   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        125 

people.  The  chorus  in  which  that  opera  abounds 
gives  the  parterre  frequent  opportunities  of  join- 
ing in  concert  with  the  stage.  This  inclination 
of  the  audience  to  sing  along  with  the  actors  so 
prevails  with  them  that  I  have  sometimes  known 
the  performer  on  the  stage  to  do  no  more  in  a 
celebrated  song  than  the  clerk  of  a  parish  church, 
who  serves  only  to  raise  the  psalm,  and  is  after- 
ward drowned  in  the  music  of  the  congregation. 
Every  actor  that  comes  on  the  stage  is  a  beau. 
The  queens  and  heroines  are  so  painted  that  they 
appear  as  ruddy  and  cherry-cheeked  as  milkmaids. 
The  shepherds  are  all  embroidered,  and  acquit 
themselves  in  a  ball  better  than  our  English  dan- 
cing-masters. I  have  seen  a  couple  of  rivers  ap- 
pear in  red  stockings  ;  and  Alpheus,  instead  of 
having  his  head  covered  with  sedge  and  bulrushes, 
making  love  in  a  fair,  full-bottomed  periwig,  and 
a  plume  of  feathers  ;  but  with  a  voice  so  full  of 
shakes  and  quavers,  that  I  should  have  thought 
the  murmur  of  a  country  brook  the  much  more 
agreeable  music.  I  remember  the  last  opera  I  saw 
in  that  merry  nation  was  the  *  Rape  of  Proser- 
pine,' where  Pluto,  to  make  the  more  tempting 
figure,  puts  himself  in  a  French  equipage,  and 
brings  Ascalaphus  along  with  him  as  his  valet  de 
chambre.  This  is  what  we  call  folly  and  imper- 
tinence, but  what  the  French  look  upon  as  gay 
and  polite." 


126  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 


II. 

THE  French  musical  drama  continued  with- 
out much  change  in  the  hands  of  the  Lulli  school 
(for  the  musician  had  several  skillful  imitators 
and  successors)  till  the  appearance  of  Jean  Phi- 
lippe Rameau,  who  inaugurated  a  new  era.  This 
celebrated  man  was  born  in  Auvergne  in  1083, 
and  was  during  his  earlier  life  the  organist  of  the 
Clermont  cathedral  church.  Here  he  pursued  the 
scientific  researches  in  music  which  entitled  him 
in  the  eyes  of  his  admirers  to  be  called  the  New- 
ton of  his  art.  He  had  reached  the  age  of  fifty 
without  recognition  as  a  dramatic  composer,  when 
the  production  of  "Hippolyte  et  Aricie  "  excited 
a  violent  feud  by  creating  a  strong  current  of  op- 
position to  the  music  of  Lulli.  He  produced 
works  in  rapid  succession,  and  finally  overcame 
all  obstacles,  and  won  for  himself  the  name  of 
being  the  greatest  lyric  composer  which  France 
up  to  that  time  had  produced.  His  last  opera, 
"  Les  Paladins,"  was  given  in  1760,  the  composer 
being  then  seventy-seven. 

The  bitterness  of  the  art-feuds  of  that  day, 
afterward  shown  in  the  Gluck-Piccini  contest, 
was  foreshadowed  in  that  waged  by  Rameau 
against  Lulli,  and  finally  against  the  Italian  new- 
comers, who  sought  to  take  possession  of  the 
French  stage.  The  matter  became  a  natioual 
quarrel,  and  it  was  considered  an  insult  to  France 


CHERUBIM   AND   JUS   PREDECESSORS.        127 

to  prefer  the  music  of  an  Italian  to  that  of  a 
Frenchman — an  insult  which  was  often  settled 
by  the  rapier  point,  when  tongue  and  pen  had 
failed  as  arbitrators.  The  subject  was  keenly  de- 
bated by  journalists  and  pamphleteers,  and  the 
press  groaned  with  essays  to  prove  that  Rameau 
was  the  first  musician  in  Europe,  though  his 
works  were  utterly  unknown  outside  of  France. 
Perhaps  no  more  valuable  testimony  to  the  char- 
acter of  these  operas  can  be  adduced  than  that  of 
Baron  Grimm  : 

"  In  his  operas  Rameau  has  overpowered  all 
his  predecessors  by  dint  of  harmony  and  quantity 
of  notes.  Some  of  his  choruses  are  very  fine. 
Lulli  could  only  sustain  his  vocal  psalmody  by  a 
simple  bass  ;  Rameau  accompanied  almost  all  his 
recitatives  with  the  orchestra.  These  accompani- 
ments are  generally  in  bad  taste  ;  they  drown  the 
voice  rather  than  support  it,  and  force  the  singers 
to  scream  and  howl  in  a  manner  which  no  ear  of 
any  delicacy  can  tolerate.  We  come  away  from 
an  opera  of  Rameau's  intoxicated  with  harmony 
and  stupefied  with  the  noise  of  voice  and  instru- 
ments. His  taste  is  always  Gothic,  and,  whether 
his  subject  is  light  or  forcible,  his  style  is  equally 
heavy.  He  was  not  destitute  of  ideas,  but  did 
not  know  what  use  to  make  of  them.  In  his 
recitatives  the  sound  is  continually  in  opposition 
to  the  sense,  though  they  occasionally  contain 
happy  declamatory  passages.  ...  If  he  had 


128  OKEAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

formed  himself  in  some  of  the  schools  of  Italy, 
and  thus  acquired  a  notion  of  musical  style  and 
habits  of  musical  thought,  he  never  would  have 
said  (as  he  did)  that  all  poems  were  alike  to  him, 
and  that  he  could  set  the  '  Gazette  de  France '  to 
music." 

From  this  it  may  be  gathered  that  Rameau, 
though  a  scientific  and  learned  musician,  lacked 
imagination,  good  taste,  and  dramatic  insight — 
qualities  which  in  the  modern  lyric  school  of 
France  have  been  so  preeminent.  It  may  be  ad- 
mitted, however,  that  he  inspired  a  taste  for  sound 
musical  science,  and  thus  prepared  the  way  for 
the  great  Gluck,  who  to  all  and  more  of  Ra- 
meau's  musical  knowledge  united  the  grand  genius 
which  makes  him  one  of  the  giants  of  his  art. 

Though  Rameau  enjoyed  supremacy  over  the 
serious  opera,  a  great  excitement  was  created  in 
Paris  by  the  arrival  of  an  Italian  company,  who 
in  1752  obtained  permission  to  perform  Italian 
burlettas  and  intermezzi  at  the  opera-house.  The 
partisans  of  the  French  school  took  alarm,  and 
the  admirers  of  Lulli  and  Rameau  forgot  their 
bickerings  to  join  forces  against  the  foreign  in- 
truders. The  battle-field  was  strewed  with  floods 
of  ink,  and  the  literati  pelted  each  other  with 
ferocious  lampoons. 

Among  the  literature  of  this  controversy,  one 
pamphlet  has  an  imperishable  place,  Rousseau's 
famous  "  Lettre  sur  la  Musique  Fra^aise,"  in 


CHERUBINI   AXD   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        129 

which  the  great  sentimentalist  espoused  the  cause 
of  Italian  music  with  an  eloquence  and  acrimony 
rarely  surpassed.  The  inconsistency  of  the  author 
was  as  marked  in  this  as  in  his  private  life.  Not 
only  did  he  at  a  later  period  become  a  great  ad- 
vocate of  Gluck  against  Piccini,  but,  in  spite  of 
his  argument  that  it  was  impossible  to  compose 
music  to  French  words,  that  the  language  was 
quite  unfit  for  it,  that  the  French  never  had  music 
and  never  would,  he  himself  had  composed  a  good 
deal  of  music  to  French  words  and  produced  a 
French  opera,  "  Le  Devin  du  Village."  Diderot 
was  also  a  warm  partisan  of  the  Italians.  Per- 
golesi's  beautiful  music  having  been  murdered  by 
the  French  orchestra  players  at  the  Grand  Opera- 
House,  Diderot  proposed  for  it  the  following 
witty  and  laconic  inscription  :  "  Hie  Marsyas 
Apollinem ."  * 

Rons  cau's  opera,  "  Le  Devin  du  Village,"  was 
performed  with  considerable  success,  in  spite  of 
the  rqvr-ir.nce  of  the  orchestral  performers,  of 
whom  ..(.  >  jau  always  spoke  in  terms  of  unmea- 
sured contempt,  to  do  justice  to  the  music.  They 
burned  Rousseau  in  effigy  for  his  scoffs.  "  Well," 
said  the  author  of  the  "  Confessions,"  "  I  don't 
wonder  that  they  should  hang  me  now,  after  hav- 
ing so  long  put  me  to  the  torture." 

The  eloquence  and  abuse  of  the  wits,  howeve^ 

*  Here  Marsyas  flayed  Apollo. 


130  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS 

did  not  long  impair  the  supremacy  of  Rameau  ; 
for  the  Italian  company  returned  to  their  own 
land,  disheartened  by  their  reception  in  the  French 
capital.  Though  this  composer  commenced  so 
late  in  life,  he  left  thirty-six  dramatic  works. 
His  greatest  work  was  "  Castor  et  Pollux."  Thir- 
ty years  later  Grimm  recognized  its  merits  by  ad- 
mitting, in  spite  of  the  great  faults  of  the  com- 
poser, "  It  is  the  pivot  on  which  the  glory  of 
French  music  turns."  When  Louis  XIV.  offered 
Rameau  a  title,  he  answered,  touching  his  breast 
and  forehead,  "  My  nobility  is  here  and  here." 
This  composer  marked  a  step  forward  in  French 
music,  for  he  gave  it  more  boldness  and  free- 
dom, and  was  the  first  really  scientific  and  well- 
equipped  exponent  of  a  national  school.  His 
choruses  were  full  of  energy  and  fire,  his  orches- 
tral effects  rich  and  massive.  He  died  in  1764, 
and  the  mortuary  music,  composed  by  himself, 
was  performed  by  a  double  orchestra  and  chorus 
from  the  Grand  Opera. 

in. 

A  DISTINGUISHED  place  in  the  records  of  French 
music  must  be  assigned  to  Andre  Ernest  Gretry, 
born  at  Liege  in  1741.  His  career  covered  the 
most  important  changes  in  the  art  as  colored  and 
influenced  by  national  tastes,  and  he  is  justly  re- 
garded as  the  father  of  comic  opera  in  his  adopted 
country.  His  childish  life  was  one  of  much  se- 


CHERUBINI   AND   HIS  PREDECESSORS.        131 

vere  discipline  and  tribulation,  for  he  was  dedi- 
cated to  music  by  his  father,  who  was  first  violin- 
ist in  the  college  of  St.  Denis  when  he  was  only 
six  years  old.  He  afterward  wrote  of  this  time 
in  his  "  Essais  BUT  la  Musique  "  :  "  The  hour  for 
the  lesson  afforded  the  teacher  an  opportunity  to 
exercise  his  cruelty.  He  made  us  sing  each  in 
turn,  and  woe  to  him  who  made  the  least  mistake  ; 
he  was  beaten  unmercifully,  the  youngest  as  well 
as  the  oldest.  He  seemed  to  take  pleasure  in  in- 
venting torture.  At  times  he  would  place  us  on 
a  short  round  stick,  from  which  we  fell  head  over 
heels  if  we  made  the  least  movement.  But  that 
which  made  us  tremble  with  fear  was  to  see  him 
knock  down  a  pupil  and  beat  him  ;  for  then  we 
were  sure  he  would  treat  some  others  in  the  same 
manner,  one  victim  being  insufficient  to  gratify 
his  ferocity.  To  maltreat  his  pupils  was  a  sort  of 
mania  with  him  ;  and  he  seemed  to  feel  that  his 
duty  was  performed  in  proportion  to  the  cries  and 
sobs  which  he  drew  forth." 

In  1759  Gretry  went  to  Rome,  where  he  stud- 
ied counterpoint  for  five  years.  Some  of  his 
works  were  received  favorably  by  the  Roman 
public,  and  he  was  made  a  member  of  the  Phil- 
harmonic Society  of  Bologna.  Pressed  by  pecu- 
niary necessity,  Gretry  determined  to  go  to  Paris  ; 
but  he  stopped  at  Geneva  on  the  route  to  earn 
money  by  singing-lessons.  Here  he  met  Voltaire 
at  Ferney.  "  You  are  a  musician  and  have  geni- 


132  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

us,"  said  the  great  man  ;  "  it  is  a  very  rare  thing, 
and  I  take  much  interest  in  you."  In  spite  of 
this,  however,  Voltaire  would  not  write  him  the 
text  for  an  opera.  The  philosopher  of  Ferney 
feared  to  trust  his  reputation  with  an  unknown 
musician.  When  Gretry  arrived  in  Paris  he  still 
found  the  same  difficulty,  as  no  distinguished 
poet  was  disposed  to  give  him  a  libretto  till  he 
had  made  his  powers  recognized.  After  two 
years  of  starving  and  waiting,  Marmontel  gave 
him  the  text  of  "  The  Huron,"  which  was  brought 
out  in  1769  and  well  received.  Other  successful 
works  followed  in  rapid  succession. 

At  this  time  Parisian  frivolity  thought  it  good 
taste  to  admire  the  rustic  and  na'ive.  The  idyls 
of  Gessner  and  the  pastorals  of  Florian  were  the 
favorite  reading,  and  Watteau  the  popular  paint- 
er. Gentlefolks,  steeped  in  artifice,  vice,  and 
intrigue,  masked  their  empty  lives  under  the  as 
sumption  of  Arcadian  simplicity,  and  minced  and 
ambled  in  the  costumes  of  shepherds  and  shep- 
herdesses. Marie  Antoinette  transformed  her 
chalet  of  Petit  Trianon  into  a  farm,  where  she 
and  her  courtiers  played  at  pastoral  life — the 
farce  preceding  the  tragedy  of  the  Revolution. 
It  was  the  effort  of  dazed  society  seeking  change. 
Gretry  followed  the  fashionable  bent  by  compos- 
ing pastoral  comedies,  and  mounted  on  the  wave 
of  success. 

In  1774  "  Fausse  Magie  "  was  produced  with 


CHERUBIXI   AXD   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        133 

the  greatest  applause.  Rousseau  war  present, 
and  the  composer  waited  on  him  in  his  box, 
meeting  a  most  cordial  reception.  On  their  way 
home  after  the  opera,  Gretry  offered  his  new 
friend  his  arm  to  help  him  over  an  obstruction. 
Rousseau  with  a  burst  of  rage  said,  "  Let  me 
make  use  of  my  own  powers,"  and  thenceforward 
the  sentimental  misanthrope  refused  to  recognize 
the  composer.  About  this  time  Gretry  met  the 
English  humorist  Hales,  who  afterward  furnished 
him  with  many  of  his  comic  texts.  The  two 
combined  to  produce  the  "  Jugement  de  Midas," 
a  satire  on  the  old  style  of  music,  which  met  with 
remarkable  popular  favor,  though  it  was  not  so 
well  received  by  the  court. 

The  crowning  work  of  this  composer's  life 
was  given  to  the  world  in  1785.  This  was  "  Ri- 
chard Cceur  de  Lion,"  and  it  proved  one  of  the 
great  musical  events  of  the  period.  Paris  was  in 
ecstasies,  and  the  judgment  of  succeeding  gener- 
ations has  confirmed  the  contemporary  verdict, 
as  it  is  still  a  favorite  opera  in  France  and  Ger- 
many. The  works  afterward  composed  by  Gre- 
try showed  decadence  in  power.  Singularly  rich 
in  fresh  and  sprightly  ideas,  he  lacked  depth  and 
grandeur,  and  failed  to  suit  the  deeper  and  sound- 
er taste  which  Cherubini  and  Mehul,  great  fol- 
lowers in  the  footsteps  of  Gluck,  gratified  by  a 
series  of  noble  masterpieces.  Gretry's  services  to 
his  art,  however,  by  his  production  of  comic  op- 


134  GREAT  ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

eras  full  of  lyric  vivacity  and  sparkle,  have  never 
been  forgotten  nor  underrated.  His  bust  was 
placed  in  the  opera-house  during  his  lifetime,  and 
he  was  made  a  member  of  the  French  Academy 
of  Fine  Arts  and  Inspector  of  the  Conservatory. 
Gr6try  possessed  qualities  of  heart  which  en- 
deared him  to  all,  and  his  death  in  1813  was  the 
occasion  of  a  general  outburst  of  lamentation. 
Deputations  from  the  theatres  and  the  Conserva- 
tory accompanied  his  remains  to  the  cemetery, 
where  Mehul  pronounced  an  eloquent  eulogium. 
In  1828  a  nephew  of  Gretry  caused  the  heart  of 
him  who  was  one  of  the  glorious  sons  of  Liege  to 
be  returned  to  his  native  city. 

Gretry  founded  a  school  of  musical  composi- 
tion in  France  which  has  since  been  cultivated 
with  signal  success,  that  of  lyric  comedy.  The 
efforts  of  Lulli  and  Rameau  had  been  turned  in 
another  direction.  The  former  had  done  little 
more  than  set  courtly  pageants  to  music,  though 
he  had  done  this  with  great  skill  and  tact,  enrich- 
ing them  with  a  variety  of  concerted  and  orches- 
tral pieces,  and  showing  much  fertility  in  the 
invention  alike  of  pathetic  and  lively  melodies. 
Rameau  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  Lulli,  but 
expanded  and  crystallized  his  ideas  into  a  more 
scientific  form.  He  had  indeed  carried  his  love  of 
form  to  a  radical  extreme.  Jean  Jacques  Rous- 
seau, who  extended  his  taste  for  nature  and  sim- 
plicity to  music,  blamed  him  severely  as  one  who 


CHERUBINI   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        135 

neglected  genuine  natural  tune  for  far-fetched 
harmonies,  on  the  ground  that  "  music  is  a  child 
of  nature,  and  has  a  language  of  its  own  for  ex- 
pressing emotional  transports,  which  can  not  be 
learned  from  thorough  bass  rules."  Again  Rous- 
seau, in  his  forcible  tract  on  French  music,  says  of 
Rameau,  from  whose  school  Gretry's  music  was 
such  a  significant  departure  : 

"  One  must  confess  that  M.  Rameau  possesses 
very  great  talent,  much  fire  and  euphony,  and  a 
considerable  knowledge  of  harmonious  combina- 
tions and  effects  ;  one  must  also  grant  him  the  art 
of  appropriating  the  ideas  of  others  by  changing 
their  character,  adorning  and  developing  them, 
and  turning  them  around  in  all  manner  of  ways, 
On  the  other  hand,  he  shows  less  facility  in  in- 
venting new  ones.  Altogether  he  has  more  skill 
than  fertility,  more  knowledge  than  genius,  or 
rather  genius  smothered  by  knowledge,  but  al- 
ways force,  grace,  and  very  often  a  beautiful  canti- 
lena. His  recitative  is  not  as  natural  but  much 
more  varied  than  that  of  Lulli ;  admirable  in  a 
few  scenes,  but  bad  as  a  rule."  Rousseau  contin- 
ues to  reproach  Rameau  with  a  too  powerful  in- 
strumentation, compared  with  Italian  simplicity, 
and  sums  up  that  nobody  knew  better  than  Ra 
meau  how  to  conceive  the  spirit  of  single  pas- 
sages and  to  produce  artistic  contrasts,  but  that 
he  entirely  failed  to  give  his  operas  "a  happy 
and  much-to-be-desired  unity."  In  another  part 


136  GUEAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

of  the  quoted  passage  Rousseau  says  that  Ra- 
meau  stands  far  beneath  Lulli  in  esprit  and  artis- 
tic tact,  but  that  he  is  often  superior  to  him  in 
dramatic  expression. 

A  clear  understanding  of  the  musical  position 
of  Rameau  is  necessary  to  fully  appreciate  the 
place  of  Gretry,  his  antithesis  as  a  composer.  For 
a  short  time  the  popularity  of  Rameau  had  been 
shaken  by  an  Italian  opera  company,  called  by 
the  French  Les  Bouffons,  who  had  created  a  gen- 
uine sensation  by  their  performance  of  airy  and 
sparkling  operettas,  entirely  removed  in  spirit 
from  the  ponderous  productions  of  the  prevailing 
school.  Though  the  Italian  comedians  did  not 
meet  with  permanent  success,  the  suave  charm  of 
their  music  left  behind  it  memories  which  became 
fruitful.*  It  furnished  the  point  of  departure 
for  the  lively  and  facile  genius  of  Gretry,  who 
laid  the  foundation  stones  of  that  lyric  comedy 

*  In  its  infancy  Italian  comic  opera  formed  the  intermezzo 
between  the  acts  of  a  serious  opera,  and — similar  to  the  Greek 
sylvan  drama  which  followed  the  tragic  trilogy — was  frequently 
a  parody  on  the  piece  which  preceded  it ;  though  more  fre- 
quently still  (as  in  Pergolesi's  "  Serva  Padrona  ")  it  was  not  a 
satire  on  any  particular  subject,  but  designed  to  heighten  the 
ideal  artistic  effect  of  the  serious  opera  by  broad  comedy. 
Having  acquired  a  complete  form  on  the  boards  of  the  small 
theatres,  it  was  transferred  to  the  larger  stage.  Though  it 
lacked  the  external  splendor  and  consummate  vocalization  of 
the  elder  sister,  its  simpler  forms  endowed  it  with  a  more  char- 
actcristic  rendering  of  actual  life. 


CHERUDIXI    AND    HIS   PREDECESSORS.        137 

which  has  flourished  in  France  with  so  much  lux- 
uriance. From  the  outset  merriment  and  humor 
were  by  no  means  the  sole  object  of  the  French 
comic  opera,  as  in  the  case  of  its  Italian  sister. 
Gretry  did  not  neglect  to  turn  the  nobler  emo- 
tions to  account,  and  by  a  judicious  admixture  of 
sentiment  he  gave  an  ideal  coloring  to  his  works, 
which  made  them  singularly  fascinating  and  ori- 
ginal. Around  Gretry  flourished  several  disciples 
and  imitators,  and  for  twenty  years  this  charming 
hybrid  between  opera  and  vaudeville  engrossed 
French  musical  talent,  to  the  exclusion  of  other 
forms  of  composition.  It  was  only  when  Gluck  * 
appeared  on  the  scene,  and  by  his  commanding 
genius  restored  serious  opera  to  its  supremacy, 
that  Gretry's  repute  was  overshadowed.  From 
this  decline  in  public  favor  he  never  fully  re- 
covered, for  the  master  left  behind  him  gifted 
disciples,  who  embodied  his  traditions,  and  were 
inspired  by  his  lofty  aims — preeminently  so  in  the 
case  of  Cherubini,  perhaps  the  greatest  name  in 
French  music.  While  French  comic  opera,  since 
the  days  of  Gretry,  has  become  modified  in  some 
of  its  forms,  it  preserves  the  spirit  and  coloring 
which  he  so  happily  imparted  to  it,  and  looks 
back  to  him  as  its  founder  and  lawgiver. 

*  See  article  on  "Gluck,"  in  "The  Great  German  Com- 
posers  "  (a  companion  volume  to  this),  in  which  his  connection 
with  French  music  is  discussed. 


GlJEAT    ITALIAN    AND    FRENCH    COMPOSERS. 


rv. 

ONE  of  the  most  accomplished  of  historians 
and  critics,  Oulibischeff,  sums  up  the  place  of 
Cherubini  in  musical  art  in  these  words  :  "  If  on 
the  one  hand  Gluck's  calm  and  plastic  grandeur, 
and  on  the  other  the  tender  and  voluptuous  charm 
of  the  melodies  of  Piccini  and  Zacchini,  had 
suited  the  circumstances  of  a  state  of  society 
sunk  in  luxury  and  nourished  with  classical  exhi- 
bitions, this  could  not  satisfy  a  society  shaken  to 
the  very  foundations  of  its  faith  and  organiza- 
tion. The  whole  of  the  dramatic  music  of  the 
eighteenth  century  must  naturally  have  appeared 
cold  and  languid  to  men  whose  minds  were  pro- 
foundly moved  with  troubles  and  wars  ;  and  oven 
at  the  present  day  the  word  languor  best  exj.i  >  sses 
that  which  no  longer  touches  us  in  the  operas  of 
the  last  century,  without  even  excepting  those  of 
Mozart  himself.  What  we  require  for  the  pictures 
of  dramatic  music  is  larger  frames,  including  more 
figures,  more  passionate  and  moving  song,  more 
sharply  marked  rhythms,  greater  fullness  in  the  vo- 
cal masses,  and  more  sonorous  brilliancy  in  the  in- 
strumentation. All  these  qualities  are  to  be  found 
in '  Lodoi'ska '  and  '  Les  Deux  Journees ' ;  and  Che- 
rubini may  not  only  be  regarded  as  the  founder 
of  the  modern  French  opera,  but  also  as  that  mu- 
sician who,  after  Mozart,  has  exerted  the  greatest 
general  influence  on  the  tendency  of  the  art.  An 


CHERUBINI   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS-        139 

Italian  by  birth  and  the  excellence  of  his  educa- 
tion, which  was  conducted  by  Sarti,  the  great 
teacher  of  composition  ;  a  German  by  his  musical 
sympathies  as  well  as  by  the  variety  and  profun- 
dity of  his  knowledge  ;  and  a  Frenchman  by  the 
school  and  principles  to  which  we  owe  his  finest 
dramatic  works,  Cherubini  strikes  me  as  being 
the  most  accomplished  musician,  if  not  the  great- 
est genius,  of  the  nineteenth  century." 

Again  the  English  composer  Macfarren  ob- 
serves :  "  Cherubini's  position  is  unique  in  the 
history  of  his  art  ;  actively  before  the  world  as  a 
composer  for  threescore  years  and  ten,  his  career 
spans  over  more  vicissitudes  in  the  progress  of 
music  than  that  of  any  other  man.  Beginning  to 
write  in  the  same  year  with  Cimarosa,  and  even 
earlier  than  Mozart,  and  being  the  contemporary 
of  Verdi  and  Wagner,  he  witnessed  almost  the 
origin  of  the  two  modern  classical  schools  of 
France  and  Germany,  their  rise  to  perfection, 
and,  if  not  their  decline,  the  arrival  of  a  time 
when  criticism  would  usurp  the  place  of  creation, 
and  when  to  propound  new  rules  for  art  claims 
higher  consideration  than  to  act  according  to  its 
ever  unalterable  principles.  His  artistic  life  in- 
deed was  a  rainbow  based  on  the  two  extremes  of 
modern  music  which  shed  light  and  glory  on  the 
great  art-cycle  over  which  it  arched.  .  .  .  His 
excellence  consists  in  his  unswerving  earnest- 
ness of  purpose,  in  the  individuality  of  his  man- 


140  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

ner,  in  the  vigor  of  his  ideas,  and  in  the  purity  of 
his  harmony." 

"  Such,"  says  M.  Miel,  "  was  Cherubini  ;  a  co- 
lossal and  incommensurable  genius,  an  existence 
full  of  days,  of  masterpieces,  and  of  glory.  Among 
his  rivals  he  found  his  most  sincere  appreciators. 
The  Chevalier  Seyfried  has  recorded,  in  a  notice 
on  Beethoven,  that  that  grand  musician  regarded 
Cherubini  as  the  first  of  his  contemporary  com- 
posers. We  will  add  nothing  to  this  praise  :  the 
judgment  of  such  a  rival  is,  for  Cherubini,  the 
voice  itself  of  posterity." 

Luigi  Carlo  Zanobe  Salvadore  Maria  Cherubini 
was  born  at  Florence  on  September  14,  1760,  the 
son  of  a  harpsichord  accompanyist  at  the  Pergola 
Theatre.  Like  so  many  other  great  composers, 
young  Cherubini  displayed  signs  of  a  fertile  and 
powerful  genius  at  an  early  age,  mastering  the 
difficulties  of  music  as  if  by  instinct.  At  the  age 
of  nine  he  was  placed  under  the  charge  of  Felici, 
one  of  the  best  Tuscan  professors  of  the  day  ;  and 
four  years  afterward  he  composed  his  first  work, 
a  mass.  His  creative  instinct,  thus  awakened, 
remained  active,  and  he  produced  a  series  of  com- 
positions which  awakened  no  little  admiration,  so 
that  he  was  pointed  at  in  the  streets  of  Florence 
as  the  young  prodigy.  When  he  was  about  six- 
teen the  attention  of  the  Grand  Duke  Leopold  of 
Tuscany  was  directed  to  him,  and  through  that 
prince's  liberality  he  was  enabled  to  become  a 


CI1ERUMXI   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        141 

pupil  of  the  most  celebrated  Italian  master  of  the 
age,  Giuseppe  Sard,  of  whom  he  soon  became  the 
favorite  pupil.  Under  the  direction  of  Sarti,  the 
young  composer  produced  a  series  of  operas,  sona- 
tas, and  masses,  and  wrote  much  of  the  music 
which  appeared  under  the  maestro's  own  name — 
a  practice  then  common  in  the  music  and  painting 
schools  of  Italy.  At  the  age  of  nineteen  Cheru- 
bini  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  learned 
and  accomplished  musicians  of  the  age,  and  his 
services  were  in  active  demand  at  the  Italian 
theatres.  In  four  years  he  produced  thirteen 
operas,  the  names  and  character  of  which  it  is 
not  necessary  now  to  mention,  as  they  are  un- 
known except  to  the  antiquary  whose  zeal  prompts 
him  to  defy  the  dust  of  the  Italian  theatrical  li- 
braries. Hale>y,  whose  admiration  of  his  master 
led  him  to  study  these  early  compositions,  speaks 
of  them  as  full  of  striking  beauties,  and,  though 
crude  in  many  particulars,  distinguished  by  those 
virile  and  daring  conceptions  which  from  the  out- 
set stamped  the  originality  of  the  man. 

Cherubini  passed  through  Paris  in  1784,  while 
the  Gluck-Piccini  excitement  was  yet  warm,  and 
visited  London  as  composer  for  the  Royal  Ital- 
ian Opera.  Here  he  became  a  constant  visitor  in 
courtly  circles,  and  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  Duke 
of  Queensbury,  and  other  noble  amateurs,  con- 
ceived the  warmest  admiration  for  his  character 

and    abilities.      For   some    reason,   however,   his 
10 


142  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

operas  written  for  England  failed,  and  he  quitted 
England  in  1786,  intending  to  return  to  Italy. 
But  the  fascinations  of  Paris  held  him,  as  they 
have  done  so  many  others,  noticeably  so  among 
the  great  musicians  ;  and  what  was  designed  as  a 
flying  visit  became  a  life-long  residence,  with  the 
exception  of  brief  interruptions  in  Germany  and 
Italy,  whither  he  went  to  fill  professional  engage- 
ments. 

Cherubini  took  up  his  residence  with  his  friend 
Viotti,  who  introduced  him  to  the  Queen,  Marie 
Antoinette,  and  the  highest  society  of  the  capital, 
then  as  now  the  art-center  of  the  world.  lie  be- 
came an  intimate  of  the  brilliant  salons  of  Mme. 
de  Polignac,  Mme.  d'Etioles,  Mme.  de  Richelieu, 
and  of  the  various  bright  assemblies  where  the 
wit,  rank,  and  beauty  of  Paris  gathered  in  the 
days  just  prior  to  the  Revolution.  The  poet  Mar- 
montel  became  his  intimate  friend,  and  gave  him 
the  opera  story  of  "  Demophon  "  to  set  to  music. 
It  was  at  this  period  that  Cherubini  became  ac- 
quainted with  the  works  of  Haydn,  and  learned 
from  him  how  to  unite  depth  with  lightness,  grace 
with  power,  jest  with  earnestness,  and  toying  with 
dignity. 

A  short  visit  to  Italy  for  the  carnival  of  1788 
resulted  in  the  production  of  the  opera  of  "  Ifige- 
nia  in  Aulide"  at  La  Scala,  Milan.  The  success 
was  great,  and  this  work,  the  last  written  for  his 
native  country,  was  given  also  at  Florence  and 


CHERUmXl    AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        143 

Parma  with  no  less  delight  and  approbation  on 
the  part  of  the  public.  Had  Cherubim  died  at 
this  time,  he  would  have  left  nothing  but  an 
obscure  name  for  Fetis's  immense  dictionary. 
Unlike  Mozart  and  Schubert,  who  at  the  same 
age  had  reached  their  highest  development,  this 
robust  and  massive  genius  ripened  slowly.  With 
him  as  with  Gluck,  with  whom  he  had  so  many 
affinities,  a  short  life  would  have  been  fatal  to 
renown.  His  last  opera  showed  a  turning  point 
in  his  development.  Halevy,  his  great  disciple, 
speaks  of  this  period  as  follows  :  "  He  is  already 
more  nervous  ;  there  peeps  out  I  know  not  exactly 
how  much  of  force  and  virility  of  which  the  Ital- 
ian musicians  of  his  day  did  not  know  or  did  not 
seek  the  secret.  It  is  the  dawn  of  a  new  day. 
Cherubini  was  preparing  himself  for  the  combat. 
Gluck  had  accustomed  France  to  the  sublime 
energy  of  his  masterpieces.  Mozart  had  just  writ- 
ten '  Le  Nozze  di  Figaro '  and  '  Don  Giovanni.' 
He  must  not  lag  behind.  He  must  not  be  con- 
quered. In  that  career  which  he  was  about  to 
dare  to  enter,  he  met  two  giants.  Like  the  athlete 
who  descends  into  the  arena,  he  anointed  his  limbs 
and  girded  his  loins  for  the  fight." 

v. 

MARMONTEL  had  furnished  the  libretto  of  an 
opera  to  Cherubini,  and  the  composer  shortly  after 
his  return  from  Turin  to  Paris  had  it  produced  ?t 


144  GREAT   ITALIAN    ANJ)   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

the  Royal  Academy  of  Music.  Vogel's  opera  on 
the  same  text,  "  Deniophon,"  was  also  brought 
out,  but  neither  one  met  with  great  success. 
Cherubim's  work,  though  full  of  vigor  and  force, 
wanted  color  and  dramatic  point.  He  was  dis- 
gusted with  his  failure,  and  resolved  to  eschew 
dramatic  music  ;  so  for  the  nonce  he  devoted  him- 
self to  instrumental  music  and  cantata.  Two 
works  of  the  latter  class,  "  Amphion  "  and  "  Circe," 
composed  at  this  time,  were  of  such  excellence  as 
to  retain  a  permanent  hold  on  the  French  stage. 
Cherubini,  too,  became  director  of  the  Italian 
opera  troupe,  "Les  Bouffons,"  organized  under 
the  patronage  of  Leonard,  the  Queen's  performer, 
and  exercised  his  taste  for  composition  by  inter- 
polating airs  of  his  own  into  the  works  of  the 
Italian  composers,  which  were  then  interesting  the 
French  public  as  against  the  operas  of  Rameau. 

"  At  this  time,"  we  are  told  by  Laf  age,  "  Cheru- 
bini had  two  distinct  styles,  one  of  which  was 
allied  to  Paisiello  and  Cimarosa  by  the  grace,  ele- 
gance, and  purity  of  the  melodic  forms  ;  the  other, 
which  attached  itself  to  the  school  of  Gluck  and 
Mozart,  more  harmonic  than  melodious,  rich  in 
instrumental  details."  This  manner  was  the  then 
unappreciated  type  of  a  new  school  destined  to 
change  the  forms  of  musical  art. 

In  1790  the  Revolution  broke  out  and  rent  the 
established  order  of  things  into  fragments.  For 
a  time  all  the  interests  of  art  were  swallowed  up  in 


CHERUBIXI   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        145 

the  frightful  turmoil  which  made  Paris  the  center 
of  attention  for  astonished  and  alarmed  Europe. 
Cherubini's  connection  had  been  with  the  aristoc- 
racy, and  now  they  were  fleeing  in  a  mad  panic 
or  mounting  the  scaffold.  His  livelihood  became 
precarious,  and  he  suffered  severely  during  the 
first  five  years  of  anarchy.  His  seclusion  was 
passed  in  studying  music,  the  physical  sciences, 
drawing,  and  botany  ;  and  his  acquaintance  was 
wisely  confined  to  a  few  musicians  like  himself. 
Once,  indeed,  his  having  learned  the  violin  as  a 
child  was  the  means  of  saving  his  life.  Indepen- 
dently venturing  out  at  night,  he  was  arrested  by 
a  roving  band  of  drunken  Sansculottes,  who  were 
seeking  musicians  to  conduct  their  street  chants. 
Somebody  recognized  Cherubini  as  a  favorite  of 
court  circles,  and,  when  he  refused  to  lead  their 
obscene  music,  the  fatal  cry,  "  The  Royalist,  the 
Royalist !  "  buzzed  through  the  crowd.  At  this 
critical  moment  another  kidnapped  player  thrust 
a  violin  in  Cherubini's  hands  and  persuaded  him 
to  yield.  So  the  two  musicians  marched  all  day 
amid  the  hoarse  yells  of  the  drunken  revolution- 
ists. He  was  also  enrolled  in  the  National  Guard, 
and  obliged  to  accompany  daily  the  march  of  the 
unfortunate  throngs  who  shed  their  blood  under 
the  axe  of  the  guillotine.  Cherubini  would  have 
fled  from  these  horrible  surroundings,  but  it  was 
difficult  to  evade  the  vigilance  of  the  French 
officials  ;  he  had  no  money ;  and  he  would  not 


146  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

leave  the  beautiful  C6cile  Tourette,  to  whom  he 
was  affianced. 

One  of  the  theatres  opened  during  the  revolu- 
tionary epoch  was  the  Theatre  Feydeau.  The 
second  opera  performed  was  Cherubini's  "  Lodo'is- 
ka"  (1791),  at  which  he  had  been  laboring  for  a 
long  time,  and  which  was  received  throughout 
Europe  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm  and  delight, 
not  less  in  Germany  than  in  France  and  Ilaly. 
The  stirring  times  aroused  a  new  taste  in  music, 
as  well  as  in  politics  and  literature.  The  dramas 
of  Racine  and  the  operas  of  Lulli  were  akin.  No 
less  did  the  stormy  genius  of  Schiller  find  its  coun- 
terpart in  Beethoven  and  Cherubini.  The  produc- 
tion of  "  Lodoiska "  was  the  point  of  departure 
from  which  the  great  French  school  of  serious 
opera,  which  has  given  us  "  Robert  le  Diable," 
"  Les  Huguenots,"  and  "  Faust,"  got  its  primal 
value  and  significance.  Two  men  of  genius,  Gluck 
and  Gretry,  had  formed  the  taste  of  the  public  in 
being  faithful  to  the  accents  of  nature.  The  idea 
of  reconciling  this  taste,  founded  on  strict  truth, 
with  the  seductive  charm  of  the  Italian  forms,  to 
which  the  French  were  beginning  to  be  sensible, 
suggested  to  Cherubini  a  system  of  lyric  drama 
capable  of  satisfying  both.  Wagner  himself  even 
says,  in  his  "  Tendencies  and  Theories,"  speaking 
of  Cherubini  and  his  great  co-laborers  Mehul  and 
Spontini :  "  It  would  be  difficult  to  answer  them, 
if  they  now  perchance  came  among  us  and  asked 


CHERUJ3IM    AND    HIS   PREDECESSORS.        147 

in  what  respect  we  had  improved  on  their  mode 
of  musical  procedure." 

"  Lodo'iska,"  which  cast  the  old  Italian  operas 
into  permanent  oblivion,  and  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  modern  French  dramatic  school  in  music,  has  a 
libretto  similar  to  that  of  "  Fidelio  "  and  Gre'try's 
"  Coeur  de  Lion "  combined,  and  was  taken  from 
a  romance  of  Faiblas  by  Fillette  Loraux.  The 
critics  found  only  one  objection  :  the  music  was 
all  so  beautiful  that  no  breathing  time  was  granted 
the  listener.  In  one  year  the  opera  was  performed 
two  hundred  times,  and  at  short  intervals  two  hun- 
dred more  representations  took  place. 

The  Revolution  culminated  in  the  crisis  of 
1793,  which  sent  the  King  to  the  scaffold.  Che- 
rubini  found  a  retreat  at  La  Chartreuse,  near 
Rouen,  the  country  seat  of  his  friend,  the  archi- 
tect Louis.  Here  he  lived  in  tranquillity,  and  com- 
posed several  minor  pieces  and  a  three-act  opera, 
never  produced,  but  afterward  worked  over  into 
"  Ali  Baba  "  and  "  Faniska."  In  his  Norman  re- 
treat Cherubini  heard  of  the  death  of  his  father, 
and  while  suffering  under  this  infliction,  just  be- 
fore his  return  to  Paris  in  1794,  he  composed  the 
opera  of  "  Elisa."  This  work  was  received  with 
much  favor  at  the  Feydeau  theatre,  though  it  did 
not  arouse  the  admiration  called  out  by  "  Lodo- 
iska." 

In  1795  the  Paris  Conservatory  was  founded, 
and  Cherubini  appointed  one  of  the  five  inspectors, 


148  GREAT   ITALIAN   A-ND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

as  well  as  professor  of  counterpoint,  his  associates 
being  Lesueur,  Gretry,  Gossec,  and  Mehul.  The 
same  year  also  saw  him  united  to  Cecile  Tourette, 
to  whom  he  had  been  so  long  and  devotedly  at- 
tached. Absorbed  in  his  duties  at  the  Conserva- 
tory he  did  not  come  before  the  public  again  till 
1797,  when  the  great  tragic  masterpiece  of  "  Me- 
dee"  was  produced  at  the  Foydeau  theatre.  "Lo- 
doiska  "  had  been  somewhat  gay  ;  "  Elisa,"  a  work 
of  graver  import,  followed  ;  but  in  "  Medee  "  was 
attained  the  profound  tragic  power  of  Gluck  and 
Beethoven.  Hoffman's  libretto  was  indeed  un- 
worthy of  the  great  music,  but  this  has  not  pre- 
vented its  recognition  by  musicians  as  one  of  the 
noblest  operas  ever  written.  It  has  probably  been 
one  of  the  causes,  however,  why  it  is  so  rarely 
represented  at  the  present  time,  its  overture  alone 
being  well  known  to  modern  musical  audiences. 
This  opera  has  been  compared  by  critics  to  Shake- 
speare's "  King  Lear,"  as  being  a  great  expression 
of  anguish  and  despair  in  their  more  stormy 
phases.  Chorley  tells  us  that,  when  he  first  Raw 
it,  he  was  irresistibly  reminded  of  the  lines  in 
Barry  Cornwall's  poem  to  Pasta  : 

"  Now  them  art  like  some  winged  tiling  that  cries 
Above  some  city,  flaming  fast  to  death." 

The  poem  which  Chorley  quotes  from  was  in- 
spired by  the  performance  of  the  great  Pasta  in 
Simone  Mayer's  weak  musical  setting  of  the  fable 


CHERUBIM   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        149 

of  the  Colchian  sorceress,  which  crowded  the 
opera-houses  of  Europe.  The  life  of  the  French 
classical  tragedy,  too,  was  powerfully  assisted  by 
Rachel.  Though  the  poem  on  which  Cherubini 
worked  was  unworthy  of  his  genius,  it  could  not 
be  from  this  or  from  lack  of  interest  in  the  theme 
alone  that  this  great  work  is  so  rarely  performed  ; 
it  is  because  there  have  been  not  more  than  three 
or  four  actresses  in  the  last  hundred  years  com- 
bining the  great  tragic  and  vocal  requirements  ex- 
acted by  the  part.  If  the  tragic  genius  of  Pasta 
could  have  been  united  with  the  voice  of  a  Cata- 
lani,  made  as  it  were  of  adamant  and  gold,  Cheru- 
bini's  sublime  musical  creation  would  have  found 
an  adequate  interpreter.  Mdlle.  Tietjens,  indeed, 
has  been  the  only  late  dramatic  singer  who  dared 
essay  so  difficult  a  task.  Musical  students  rank 
the  instrumental  parts  of  this  opera  with  the  or- 
gan music  of  Bach,  the  choral  fugues  of  Handel, 
and  the  symphonies  of  Beethoven,  for  beauty  of 
form  and  originality  of  ideas. 

On  its  first  representation,  on  the  13th  of 
March,  1797,  one  of  the  journals,  after  praising 
its  beauty,  professed  to  discover  imitations  of 
M  t'li  ill's  manner  in  it.  The  latter  composer,  in  an 
indignant  rejoinder,  proclaimed  himself  and  all 
others  as  overshadowed  by  Cherubini's  genius  :  a 
singular  example  of  artistic  humility  and  justice. 
Three  years  after  its  performance  in  Paris,  it  was 
given  at  Berlin  and  Vienna,  and  stamped  by  the 


150  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

Germans  as  one  of  the  world's  great  musical  mas- 
terpieces. This  work  was  a  favorite  one  with 
Schubert,  Beethoven,  and  Weber,  and  there  have 
been  few  great  composers  who  have  not  put  on 
record  their  admiration  of  it. 

As  great,  however,  as  "  Medee "  is  ranked, 
"  Les  Deux  Journees,"  *  produced  in  1800,  is  the 
opera  on  which  Cherubim's  fame  as  a  dramatic 
composer  chiefly  rests.  Three  hundred  consecu- 
tive performances  did  not  satisfy  Paris  ;  and  at 
Berlin  and  Frankfort,  as  well  as  in  Italy,  it  was 
hailed  with  acclamation.  Bouilly  was  the  author 
of  the  opera-story,  suggested  by  the  generous  ac- 
tion of  a  water-carrier  toward  a  magistrate  who 
was  related  to  the  author.  The  story  is  so  inter- 
esting, so  admirably  written,  that  Goethe  and 
Mendelssohn  considered  it  the  true  model  for  a 
comic  opera.  The  musical  composition,  too,  is 
nearly  faultless  in  form  and  replete  with  beauties. 
In  this  opera  Cherubini  anticipated  the  reforms 
of  Wagner,  for  he  dispensed  with  the  old  system 
which  made  the  drama  a  web  of  beautiful  melo- 
dies, and  established  his  musical  effects  for  the 
most  part  by  the  vigor  and  charm  of  the  choruses 
and  concerted  pieces.  It  has  been  accepted  as  a 
model  work  by  composers,  and  Beethoven  was  in 
the  habit  of  keeping  it  by  him  on  his  writing- 
table  for  constant  study  and  reference. 

*  In  German  known  as  "  Die  Wassertrager,"  in  English 
"  The  Water-Carriers." 


CHERUBINI   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        151 

Spohr  in  his  autobiography  says:  "I  recol- 
lect, when  the  '  Deux  Journees '  was  performed 
for  the  first  time,  how,  intoxicated  with  delight 
and  the  powerful  impression  the  work  had  made 
on  me,  I  asked  on  that  very  evening  to  have  the 
score  given  me,  and  sat  over  it  the  whole  night ; 
and  that  it  was  that  opera  chiefly  that  gave  me 
my  first  impulse  to  composition."  Weber,  in  a 
letter  from  Munich  written  in  1812,  says  :  "  Fancy 
my  delight  when  I  beheld  lying  upon  the  table  of 
the  hotel  the  play-bill  with  the  magic  name  Ar- 
mand.  I  was  the  first  person  in  the  theatre,  and 
planted  myself  in  the  middle  of  the  pit,  where  I 
waited  most  anxiously  for  the  tones  which  I  knew 
beforehand  would  elevate  and  inspire  me.  I  think 
I  may  assert  boldly  that  '  Les  Deux  Journees '  is 
a  really  great  dramatic  and  classical  work.  Eve- 
rything is  calculated  so  as  to  produce  the  greatest 
effect ;  all  the  various  pieces  are  so  much  in  their 
proper  place  that  you  can  neither  omit  one  nor 
make  any  addition  to  them.  The  opera  displays 
a  pleasing  richness  of  melody,  vigorous  declama- 
tion, and  all-striking  truth  in  the  treatment  of 
situations,  ever  new,  ever  heard  and  retained  with 
pleasure."  Mendelssohn,  too,  writing  to  his  father 
of  a  performance  of  this  opera,  speaks  of  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  audience  as  extreme,  as  well  as  of 
his  own  pleasure  as  surpassing  anything  he  had 
ever  experienced  in  a  theatre.  Mendelssohn,  who 
never  completed  an  opera,  because  he  did  not  find 


152  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

until  shortly  before  hi*  death  a  theme  which 
properly  inspired  him  to  dramatic  creation,  cor- 
responded with  Planch6,  with  the  hope  of  getting 
from  the  latter  a  libretto  which  should  unite  the 
excellences  of  "  Fidelio  "  with  those  of  "  Les  Deux 
Journees."  He  found,  at  last,  a  libretto,  which, 
if  it  did  not  wholly  satisfy  him,  at  least  overcame 
some  of  his  prejudices,  in  a  story  based  on  the 
Rhine  myth  of  Lorelei.  A  fragment  of  it  only 
was  finished,  and  the  finale  of  the  first  act  is  occa- 
sionally performed  in  England. 

VI. 

BEFORE  Napoleon  became  First  Consul,  he 
had  been  on  familiar  terms  with  Cherubini.  The 
soldier  and  the  composer  were  seated  in  the  same 
box  listening  to  an  opera  by  the  latter.  Napo- 
leon, whose  tastes  for  music  were  for  the  suave 
and  sensuous  Italian  style,  turned  to  him  and 
said  :  "  My  dear  Cherubini,  you  are  certainly  an 
excellent  musician  ;  but  really  your  music  is  so 
noisy  and  complicated  that  I  can  make  nothing  of 
it "  ;  to  which  Cherubini  replied  :  "  My  dear  gen- 
eral, you  are  certainly  an  excellent  soldier  ;  but 
in  regard  to  music  you  must  excuse  me  if  I  don't 
think  it  necessary  to  adapt  my  music  to  your  com- 
prehension." This  haughty  reply  was  the  begin- 
ning of  an  estrangement.  Another  illustration 
of  Cherubini's  sturdy  pride  and  dignity  was  his 
rejoinder  to  Napoleon,  when  the  latter  was  prais- 


CIIERUBIXI   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        153 

ing  the  works  of  the  Italjan  composers,  and  cov- 
ertly sneering  at  his  own.  "  Citizen  General,"  he 
replied,  "  occupy  yourself  with  battles  and  vic- 
tories, and  allow  me  to  treat  according  to  my 
talent  an  art  of  which  you  are  grossly  ignorant." 
Even  when  Napoleon  became  Emperor,  the  proud 
composer  never  learned  "  to  crook  the  pregnant 
hinges  of  his  knee  "  to  the  man  before  whom  Eu- 
rope trembled. 

On  the  12th  of  December,  1800,  a  grand  per- 
formance of  "  The  Creation  "  took  place  at  Paris. 
Napoleon  on  his  way  to  it  narrowly  escaped  being 
killed  by  an  infernal  machine.  Cherubini  was 
one  of  the  deputation,  representing  the  various 
corporations  and  societies  of  Paris,  who  waited 
on  the  First  Consul  to  congratulate  him  upon  his 
escape.  Cherubini  kept  in  the  background,  when 
the  sarcasm,  "  I  do  not  see  Monsieur  Cherubini," 
pronounced  in  the  French  way,  as  if  to  indicate 
that  Cherubini  was  not  worthy  of  being  ranked 
with  the  Italian  composers,  brought  him  promptly 
forward.  "  Well,"  said  Napoleon,  "  the  French 
are  in  Italy."  "  Where  would  they  not  go,"  an 
swered  Cherubini,  "  led  by  such  a  hero  as  you  ?" 
This  pleased  the  First  Consul,  who,  however,  soon 
got  to  the  old  musical  quarrel.  "  I  tell  you  I  like 
Paisiello's  music  immensely  ;  it  is  soft  and  tran- 
quil. You  have  much  talent,  but  there  is  too 
much  accompaniment."  Said  Cherubini,  "  Citi- 
zen Consul,  I  conform  myself  to  French  taste." 


154  GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

"  Your  music,"  continued  the  other,  "  makes  too 
much  noise.  Speak  to  me  in  that  of  Paisiello  ; 
that  is  what  lulls  me  gently."  "  I  understand," 
replied  the  composer  ;  "  you  like  music  which 
doesn't  stop  you  from  thinking  of  state  affairs." 
This  witty  rejoinder  made  the  arrogant  soldier 
frown,  and  the  talk  suddenly  ceased. 

As  a  result  of  this  alienation  Cherubini  found 
himself  persistently  ignored  and  ill-treated  by  the 
First  Consul.  In  spite  of  his  having  produced 
such  great  masterpieces,  his  income  was  very 
'.small,  apart  from  his  pay  as  Inspector  of  the  Con- 
servatory. The '  ill  will  of  the  ruler  of  France 
Was*  a  steady  check  to  his  preferment.  When  Na- 
poleon established  his  consular  chapel  in  1802,  he 
invited  Paisiello  from  Naples  to  become  director 
at  a  salary  of  12,000  francs  a  year.  It  gave  great 
umbrage  to  the  Conservatory  that  its  famous 
teachers  should  have  been  slighted  for  an  Italian 
foreigner,  and  musical  circles  in  Paris  were  sha- 
ken by  petty  contentions.  Paisiello,  however, 
found  the  public  indifferent  to  his  works,  and  soon 
wearied  of  a  place  where  the  admiration  to  which 
he  had  been  accustomed  no  longer  flattered  his 
complacency.  He  resigned,  and  his  position  was 
offered  to  Mehul,  who  is  said  to  have  declined  it 
because  he  regarded  Cherubini  as  far  more  worthy 
of  it,  and  to  have  accepted  it  only  on  condition 
that  his  friend  could  share  the  duties  and  emolu- 
ments with  him.  Cherubini,  fretted  and  irritated 


CIIERUIJIXI   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        155 

by  his  condition,  retired  for  a  time  from  the  pur- 
suit of  his  art,  and  devoted  himself  to  flowers. 
The  opera  of  "  Anacreon,"  a  powerful  but  une- 
qual work,  which  reflected  the  disturbance  and 
agitation  of  his  mind,  was  the  sole  fruit  of  his 
musical  efforts  for  about  four  years. 

While  Cherubini  was  in  the  deepest  depression 
— for  he  had  a  large  family  depending  on  him 
and  small  means  with  which  to  support  them — a 
ray  of  sunshine  came  in  1805  in  the  shape  of  an 
invitation  to  compose  for  the  managers  of  the 
opera  at  Vienna.  His  advent  at  the  Austrian 
capital  produced  a  profound  sensation,  and  he  re- 
ceived a  right  royal  welcome  from  the  great  mu- 
sicians of  Germany.  The  aged  Haydn,  Hum- 
mel, and  Beethoven  became  his  warm  friends  with 
the  generous  freemasonry  of  genius,  for  his  rank 
as  a  musician  was  recognized  throughout  Eu- 
rope. 

The  war  which  broke  out  after  our  musician's 
departure  from  Paris  between  France  and  Austria 
ended  shortly  in  the  capitulation  of  Ulm,  and  the 
French  Emperor  took  up  his  residence  at  Schon- 
brunn.  Napoleon  received  Cherubini  kindly  when 
he  came  in  answer  to  his  summons,  and  it  was  ar- 
ranged that  a  series  of  twelve  concerts  should  be 
given  alternately  at  Schb'nbrunn  and  Vienna.  The 
pettiness  which  entered  into  the  French  Em- 
peror's nature  in  spite  of  his  greatness  continued 
to  be  shown  in  his  ebullitions  of  wrath  because 


15G  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND    FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

Cherubini  persisted  in  holding  his  own  musical 
views  against  the  imperial  opinion.  Napoleon, 
bowever,  on  the  eve  of  his  return  to  France,  urged 
him  to  accompany  him,  offering  the  long-coveted 
position  of  musical  director  ;  but  Cherubini  was 
under  contract  to  remain  a  certain  length  of  time 
at  Vienna,  and  he  would  not  break  his  pledge. 

The  winter  of  1805  witnessed  two  remarkable 
musical  events  at  the  Austrian  capital,  the  produc- 
tion of  Beethoven's  "  Fidelio  "  and  the  last  great 
opera  written  by  Cherubini,  "  Faniska."  Haydn 
and  Beethoven  were  both  present  at  the  latter  per- 
formance. The  former  embraced  Cherubini  and 
said  to  him,  "  You  are  my  son,  worthy  of  my  love." 
Beethoven  cordially  hailed  him  as  "  the  first  dra- 
matic composer  of  the  age."  It  is  an  interesting 
fact  that  two  such  important  dramatic  composi- 
tions should  have  been  written  at  the  same  time, 
independently  of  each  other ;  that  both  works 
should  have  been  in  advance  of  their  age  ;  that 
they  should  have  displayed  a  striking  similarity 
of  style  ;  and  that  both  should  have  suffered  from 
the  reproach  of  the  music  being  too  learned  for 
the  public.  The  opera  of  "  Faniska  "  is  based  on 
a  Polish  legend  of  great  dramatic  beauty,  which, 
however,  was  not  very  artistically  treated  by  the 
librettist.  Mendelssohn  in  after  years  noted  the 
striking  resemblance  between  Beethoven  and  our 
composer  in  the  conception  and  method  of  dra- 
matic composition.  In  one  of  his  letters  to  Edou- 


CIIERUBINI   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        157 

ard  Devrient  he  says,  speaking  of  "  Fidelio "  : 
"  On  looking  into  the  score,  as  well  as  on  listening 
to  the  performance,  I  everywhere  perceive  Cheru- 
bini's  dramatic  style  of  composition.  It  is  true 
that  Beethoven  did  not  ape  that  style,  but  it  was 
before  his  mind  as  his  most  cherished  pattern.'* 
The  unity  of  idea  and  musical  color  between 
"  Faniska "  and  "  Fidelio "  seems  to  have  been 
noted  by  many  critics  both  of  contemporary  and 
succeeding  times. 

Cherubini  would  gladly  have  written  more  for 
the  Viennese,  by  whom  he  had  been  so  cordially 
treated  ;  but  the  unsettled  times  and  his  home- 
sickness for  Paris  conspired  to  take  him  back  to 
the  city  of  his  adoption.  He  exhausted  many  ef- 
forts to  find  Mozart's  tomb  in  Vienna,  and  desired 
to  place  a  monument  over  his  neglected  remains, 
but  failed  to  locate  the  resting-place  of  one  he 
loved  so  much.  Haydn,  Beethoven,  Hummel, 
Salieri,  and  the  other  leading  composers  reluc- 
tantly parted  with  him,  and  on  April  1,  1806,  his 
return  to  Paris  was  celebrated  by  a  brilliant  fete 
improvised  for  him  at  the  Conservatory.  Fate, 
however,  had  not  done  with  her  persecutions,  for 
fate  in  France  took  the  shape  of  Napoleon,  whose 
hostility,  easily  aroused,  was  implacable  ;  who 
aspired  to  rule  the  arts  and  letters  as  he  did  armies 
and  state  policy  ;  who  spared  neither  Cherubini 
nor  Madame  de  Stael.  Cherubini  was  neglected 

and    insulted    by   authority,  while   honors  were 
11 


158  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

showered  on  Mehul,  Grt'try,  Spontini,  and  Le- 
sueur.  He  sank  into  a  state  of  profound  depres- 
sion, and  it  was  even  reported  in  Vienna  that  he 
was  dead.  He  forsook  music  and  devoted  him- 
self to  drawing  and  botany.  Had  he  not  been  a 
great  musician,  it  is  probable  he  would  have  ex- 
celled in  pictorial  art.  One  day  the  great  painter 
David  entered  the  room  where  he  wTas  working  in 
crayon  on  a  landscape  of  the  Salvator  Rosa  style. 
So  pleased  was  the  painter  that  he  cried,  "  Truly 
admirable  !  Courage  !  "  In  1808  Cherubini  found 
complete  rest  in  a  visit  to  the  country-seat  of  the 
Prince  de  Chimay  in  Belgium,  whither  he  was 
accompanied  by  his  friend  and  pupil  Auber. 

VII. 

WITH  this  period  Cherubini  closed  his  career 
practically  as  an  operatic  composer,  though  sev- 
eral dramatic  works  were  produced  subsequently, 
and  entered  on  his  no  less  great  sphere  of  ecclesias- 
tical composition.  At  Chimay  for  a  while  no  one 
dared  to  mention  music  in  his  presence.  Drawing 
and  painting  flowers  seemed  to  be  his  sole  plea- 
sure. At  last  the  president  of  the  little  music 
society  at  Chimay  ventured  to  ask  him  to  write  a 
mass  for  St.  Cecilia's  feast  day.  He  curtly  re- 
fused, but  his  hostess  noticed  that  he  was  agitated 
by  the  incident,  as  if  his  slumbering  instincts  had 
started  again  into  life.  One  day  the  Princess 
placed  music  paper  on  his  table,  and  Cherubini  on 


CHERUHIM    AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        159 

returning  from  his  walk  instantly  began  to  com- 
pose, as  if  he  had  never  ceased  it.  It  is  recorded 
that  he  traced  out  in  full  score  the  "  Kyrie  "  of  his 
great  mass  in  F  during  the  intermission  of  a  single 
game  of  billiards.  Only  a  portion  of  the  mass 
was  completed  in  time  for  the  festival,  but,  on 
Cherubini's  return  to  Paris  in  1809,  it  was  publicly 
given  by  an  admirable  orchestra,  and  hailed  with 
a  great  enthusiasm,  that  soon  swept  through  Eu- 
rope. It  was  perceived  that  Cherubini  had  struck 
out  for  himself  a  new  path  in  church  music.  Fetis, 
the  musical  historian,  records  its  reception  as  fol- 
lows :  "  All  expressed  an  unreserved  admiration 
for  this  composition  of  a  new  order,  whereby 
Cherubini  has  placed  himself  above  all  musicians 
who  have  as  yet  written  in  the  concerted  style  of 
church  music.  Superior  to  the  masses  of  Haydn, 
Mozart,  and  Beethoven,  and  the  masters  of  the 
Neapolitan  school,  that  of  Cherubini  is  as  remark- 
able for  originality  of  idea  as  for  perfection  in 
art."  Picchiante,  a  distinguished  critic,  sums  up 
the  impressions  made  by  this  great  work  in  the 
following  eloquent  and  vigorous  passage  :  "  All 
the  musical  science  of  the  good  age  of  religious 
music,  the  sixteenth  century  of  the  Christian  era, 
was  summed  up  in  Palestrina,  who  flourished  at 
that  time,  and  by  its  aid  he  put  into  form  noble 
and  sublime  conceptions.  With  the  grave  Gre- 
gorian melody,  learnedly  elaborated  in  vigorous 
counterpoint  and  reduced  to  greater  clearness  and 


100  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

elegance  without  instrumental  aid,  Palestrina  knew 
how  to  awaken  among  his  hearers  mysterious, 
grand,  deep,  vague  sensations,  that  seemed  caused 
by  the  objects  of  an  unknown  world,  or  by  su- 
perior powers  in  the  human  imagination.  With 
the  same  profound  thoughtf ulness  of  the  old  Cath- 
olic music,  enriched  by  the  perfection  which  art 
has  attained  in  two  centuries,  and  with  all  the 
means  which  a  composer  nowadays  can  make  use 
of,  Cherubini  perfected  another  conception,  and 
this  consisted  in  utilizing  the  style  adapted  to 
dramatic  composition  when  narrating  the  church 
text,  by  which  means  he  was  able  to  succeed  in 
depicting  man  in  his  various  vicissitudes,  now  ris- 
ing to  the  praises  of  Divinity,  now  gazing  on  the 
Supreme  Power,  now  suppliant  and  prostrate.  So 
that,  while  Palestrina's  music  places  God  before 
man,  that  of  Cherubini  places  man  before  God." 
Adolphe  Adam  puts  the  comparison  more  epigram- 
matically  in  saying  :  "  If  Palestrina  had  lived  in 
our  own  times,  he  would  have  been  Cherubini." 
The  masters  of  the  old  Roman  school  of  church 
music  had  received  it  as  an  emanation  of  pure 
sentiment,  with  no  tinge  of  human  warmth  and 
color.  Cherubini,  on  the  contrary,  aimed  to  make 
his  music  express  the  dramatic  passion  of  the 
words,  and  in  the  realization  of  this  he  brought 
to  bear  all  the  resources  of  a  musical  science  un- 
equaled  except  perhaps  by  Beethoven.  The  noble 
masses  in  F  and  D  were  also  written  in  1809 


CHERUBINI   AND  HIS  PREDECESSORS.        161 

and  stamped  themselves  on  public  judgment  as  no 
less  powerful  works  of  genius  and  knowledge. 

Some  of  Cherubini's  friends  in  1809  tried  to 
reconcile  the  composer  with  the  Emperor,  and  in 
furtherance  of  this  an  opera  was  written  anony- 
mously, "  Pimmalione."  Napoleon  was  delighted, 
and  even  affected  to  tears.  Instantly,  however, 
that  Cherubini's  name  was  uttered,  he  became 
dumb  and  cold.  Nevertheless,  as  if  ashamed  of 
his  injustice,  he  sent  Cherubini  a  large  sum  of 
money,  and  a  commission  to  write  the  music  for 
his  marriage  ode.  Several  fine  works  followed  in 
the  next  two  years,  among  them  the  Mass  in  D, 
regarded  by  some  of  his  admirers  as  his  ecclesias- 
tical masterpiece.  Miel  claims  that  in  largeness 
of  design  and  complication  of  detail,  sublimity 
of  conception  and  dramatic  intensity,  two  works 
only  of  its  class  approach  it,  Beethoven's  Mass  in 
D  and  Niedermeyer's  Mass  in  D  minor. 

In  1811  Halevy,  the  future  author  of  "La 
Juive,"  became  Cherubini's  pupil,  and  a  devoted 
friendship  ever  continued  between  the  two.  The 
opera  of  "  Les  Abencerages  "  was  also  produced, 
and  it  was  pronounced  nowise  inferior  to  "  Me- 
dee  "  and  "  Les  Deux  Journees."  Mendelssohn 
many  years  afterward,  writing  to  Moscheles  in 
Paris,  asked  :  "  Has  Ontslow  written  anything 
new  ?  And  old  Cherubini  ?  There's  a  matchless 
fellow  !  I  have  got  his  '  Abencerages,'  and  can 
not  sufficiently  admire  the  sparkling  fire,  the  clear 


1C*  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

original  phrasing,  the  extraordinary  delicacy  and 
refinement  with  which  it  is  written,  or  feel  grate- 
ful enough  to  the  grand  old  man  for  it.  Besides, 
it  is  all  so  free  and  bold  and  spirited."  The  work 
would  have  had  a  greater  immediate  success,  had 
not  Paris  been  in  profound  gloom  from  the  dis- 
astrous results  of  the  Moscow  campaign  and  the 
horrors  of  the  French  retreat,  where  famine  and 
disease  finished  the  work  of  bayonet  and  cannon- 
ball. 

The  unsettled  and  disheartening  times  dis-' 
turbed  all  the  relations  of  artists.  There  is  but 
little  record  of  Cherubini  for  several  years.  A 
significant  passage  in  a  letter  written  in  1814, 
speaking  of  several  military  marches  written  for 
a  Prussian  band,  indicates  the  occupation  of  Paris 
by  the  allies  and  Napoleon's  banishment  in  Elba. 
The  period  of  "  The  Hundred  Days "  was  spent 
by  Cherubini  in  England  ;  and  the  world's  won- 
der, the  battle  of  Waterloo,  was  fought,  and  the 
Bourbons  were  permanently  restored,  before  he 
again  set  foot  in  Paris.  The  restored  dynasty  de- 
lighted to  honor  the  man  whom  Napoleon  had 
slighted,  and  gifts  were  showered  on  him  alike  by 
the  Court  and  by  the  leading  academies  of  Eu- 
rope. The  walls  of  his  studio  were  covered  with 
medals  and  diplomas  ;  and  his  appointment  as  di- 
rector of  the  King's  chapel  (which,  however,  he 
refused  unless  shared  with  Lesueur,  the  old  in- 
cumbent) placed  him  above  the  daily  demands  of 


CliERUBIM   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        163 

want.  So,  at  the  age  of  fifty-five,  this  great  com- 
poser for  the  first  time  ceased  to  be  anxious  on 
the  score  of  his  livelihood.  Thenceforward  the 
life  of  Cherubini  was  destined  to  flow  with  a 
placid  current,  its  chief  incidents  being  the  great 
works  in  church  music,  which  he  poured  forth 
year  after  year,  to  the  admiration  and  delight  of 
the  artistic  world.  These  remarkable  masses,  by 
their  dramatic  power,  greatness  of  design,  and 
wealth  of  instrumentation,  excited  as  much  dis- 
cussion and  interest  throughout  Europe  as  the 
operas  of  other  composers.  That  written  in  1816, 
the  C  minor  requiem  mass,  is  pronounced  by  Ber- 
lioz to  be  the  greatest  work  of  this  description 
ever  composed. 

We  get  some  pleasant  glimpses  of  Cherubini 
as  a  man  during  this  serene  autumn  of  his  life. 
Spohr  tells  us  how  cordially  Cherubini,  generally 
regarded  as  an  austere  and  irritable  man,  received 
him.  The  world-renowned  master,  accustomed 
to  handle  instruments  in  great  orchestral  masses, 
was  not  familiar  with  the  smaller  compositions 
known  as  chamber  music,  in  which  the  Germans 
so  excelled.  He  was  greatly  delighted  when  the 
youthful  Spohr  turned  his  attention  to  this  form 
of  music,  and  he  insisted  on  the  latter  directing 
little  concerts  over  and  over  again  at  his  house. 

In  1821  Moscheles  writes  in  his  diary,  apropos 
of  Cherubini  and  his  artistic  surroundings  :  "  I 
spent  the  evening  at  Ciceri's,  son  in-law  of  Isabey. 


164  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

the  famous  painter,  where  I  was  introduced  to  one 
of  the  most  interesting  circles  of  artists.  In  the 
first  room  were  assembled  the  most  famous  paint- 
ers, engaged  in  drawing  several  things  for  their 
own  amusement.  In  the  midst  of  these  was  Cheru- 
bini,  also  drawing.  I  had  the  honor,  like  every 
one  newly  introduced,  of  having  my  portrait  taken 
in  caricature.  Begasse  took  me  in  hand  and  suc- 
ceeded well.  In  an  adjoining  room  were  musici- 
ans and  actors,  among  them  Ponchard,  Levasseur, 
Dugazon,  Panseron,  Mile,  de  Munck,  and  Mme. 
Livere,  of  the  Theatre  Franyais.  The  most  in- 
teresting of  their  performances,  which  I  attended 
merely  as  a  listener,  was  a  vocal  quartet  by  Cheru- 
bini,  performed  under  his  direction.  Later  in  the 
evening,  the  whole  party  armed  itself  with  larger 
or  smaller  'mirlitons '  (reed-pipe  whistles),  and  on 
these  small  monotonous  instruments,  sometimes 
made  of  sugar,  they  played,  after  the  fashion  of 
Russian  horn  music,  the  overture  to  '  Demophon,' 
two  frying-pans  representing  the  drums."  On  the 
27th  of  March  this  "  mirliton "  concert  was  re- 
peated at  Ciceri's,  and  on  this  occasion  Cherubini 
took  an  active  part.  Moscheles  relates  of  that 
evening  :  "  Horace  Vernet  entertained  us  with  his 
ventriloquizing  powers,  M.  Salmon  with  his  imita- 
tion of  a  horn,  and  Dugazon  actually  with  a  mir- 
liton solo.  Lafont  and  I  represented  the  classical 
music,  which,  after  all,  held  its  own." 

The  distinguished  pianist,  in  further  pleasant 


CHERUBIXI   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        1G5 

gossip  about  Cherubini,  tells  us  of  hearing  the 
first  performance  of  a  pasticcio  opera,  composed 
by  Cherubini,  Paer,  Berton,  Bo'ieldieu,  and  Kreut- 
zer,  in  honor  of  the  christening  of  the  Duke  of 
Bordeaux.  Of  the  part  written  by  Cherubini  he 
speaks  in  the  warmest  praise,  and  says  quizzically 
of  the  composer  :  "  His  squeaky  sharp  little  voice 
was  sometimes  heard  in  the  midst  of  his  conduct- 
ing, and  interrupted  my  state  of  ecstasy  caused 
by  his  presence  and  composition." 

In  1822  Cherubini  became  Director  of  the  re- 
established Conservatory,  that  institution  having 
fallen  into  some  decay,  and  displayed  great  ad- 
ministrative power  and  grasp  of  detail  in  bring- 
ing order  out  of  chaos.  His  vigilance  and  ex- 
perience, seconded  by  an  able  staff  of  professors, 
including  the  foremost  musical  names  of  France, 
soon  made  the  Conservatory  what  it  has  since  re- 
mained, the  greatest  musical  college  of  the  world. 
He  was  incessant  in  the  performance  of  his  duties, 
and  spared  neither  himself  nor  his  staff  of  pro- 
fessors to  build  up  the  institution.  His  spirit  com- 
municated itself  both  to  masters  and  pupils.  Ten 
o'clock  every  morning  saw  him  at  his  office,  and 
interviews  even  with  the  great  were  timed  watch 
in  hand.  This  law  of  order  even  prompted  him 
to  rebuke  the  Minister  of  Fine  Arts  severely  when 
one  day  that  functionary  met  an  appointment  tar- 
dily. Fetis  tells  us  :  "  To  his  new  functions  he 
brought  the  most  scrupulous  exactitude  of  duty, 


166  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

that  spirit  of  order  which  he  possessed  during  the 
whole  of  his  life,  and  an  entire  devotion  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  establishment.  Severe  and  ex- 
acting toward  the  professors  and  servants  as  he 
was  with  himself,  he  brought  with  him  little  love 
in  his  connections  with  the  artists  placed  under 
his  authority."  His  official  duties  finished,  this 
incessant  worker  occupied  his  time  with  original 
composition,  or  copying  out  the  scores  of  other 
composers  from  memory. 

Though  habitually  cold  and  severe  in  his  man- 
ner during  these  latter  years,  there  was  a  spring 
of  playful  tenderness  beneath.  One  day  a  child 
of  great  talent  was  brought  by  his  father,  a  poor 
man,  to  see  Cherubini.  The  latter's  first  exclama- 
tion was  :  "  This  is  not  a  nursing  hospital  for  in- 
fants." Relenting  somewhat,  he  questioned  the 
boy,  and  soon  discovered  his  remarkable  talents. 
The  same  old  man  was  charmed  and  caressed  the 
youngster,  saying,  "  Bravo,  my  little  friend  !  But 
why  are  you  here,  and  what  can  I  do  for  you  ?  " 
"  A  thing  that  is  very  easy,  and  which  would 
make  me  very  happy,"  was  the  reply  ;  "  put  me 
into  the  Conservatory."  "  It's  a  thing  done,"  said 
Cherubini  ;  "  you  are  one  of  us."  He  afterward 
said  to  his  friends  playfully  :  "  I  had  to  be  careful 
about  pushing  the  questions  too  far,  for  the  baby 
was  beginning  to  prove  that  he  knew  more  about 
music  than  I  did  myself." 

His  merciless  criticism  of  his  pupils  did  not 


CHERUBIXI   AND   HIS  PREDECESSORS.        167 

surpass  his  own  modesty  and  diffidence.  One  day, 
when  a  symphony  of  Beethoven  was  about  to  be 
played  at  a  concert,  just  prior  to  one  of  his  own 
works,  he  said,  "  Now  I  am  going  to  appear  as  a 
very  small  boy  indeed."  The  mutual  affection 
of  Cherubini  and  Beethoven  remained  unabated 
through  life,  as  is  shown  by  the  touching  letter 
written  by  the  latter  just  before  his  death,  but 
which  Cherubini  did  not  receive  till  after  that 
event.  The  letter  was  as  follows  : 

VIENNA,  March  15, 1823. 

HIGHLY  ESTEEMED  SIR  :  I  joyfully  take  advantage  of 
this  opportunity  to  address  you. 

I  have  done  so  often  in  spirit,  as  I  prize  your  theatri- 
cal works  beyond  others.  The  artistic  world  has  only  to 
lament  that  in  Germany,  at  least,  no  new  dramatic  work 
of  yours  has  appeared.  Highly  as  all  your  works  are 
valued  by  true  connoisseurs,  still  it  is  a  great  loss  to  art 
not  to  possess  any  fresh  production  of  your  great  genius 
for  the  theatre. 

True  art  is  imperishable,  and  the  true  artist  feels 
heartfelt  pleasure  in  grand  works  of  genius,  and  that  is 
what  enchants  me  when  I  hear  a  new  composition  of 
yours  ;  in  fact,  I  take  greater  interest  in  it  than  in  my  own ; 
in  short,  I  love  and  honor  you.  Were  it  not  that  my 
continued  bad  health  stops  my  coming  to  see  you  in 
Paris,  with  what  exceeding  delight  would  I  discuss  ques- 
tions of  art  with  you !  Do  not  think  that  this  is  meant 
merely  to  serve  as  an  introduction  to  the  favor  I  am 
about  to  ask  of  you.  I  hope  and  feel  sure  that  you  do 
not  for  a  moment  suspect  me  of  such  base  sentiments.  I 


168  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

recently  completed  a  grand  solemn  Mass,  and  have  re 
solved  to  offer  it  to  the  various  European  courts,  as  it  is 
not  my  intention  to  publish  it  at  present.  I  have  there- 
fore asked  the  King  of  France,  through  the  French  em- 
bassy here,  to  subscribe  to  this  work,  and  I  feel  certain 
that  his  Majesty  would  at  your  recommendation  agree  to 
do  so. 

My  critical  situation  demands  that  I  should  not  solely 
fix  my  eyes  upon  heaven,  as  is  my  wont ;  on  the  con- 
trary, it  would  have  me  fix  them  also  upon  earth,  here 
below,  for  the  necessities  of  life. 

Whatever  may  be  the  fate  of  my  request  to  you,  I 
shall  for  ever  continue  to  love  and  esteem  you ;  and  you 
for  ever  remain  of  all  my  contemporaries  that  one  whom 
I  esteem  the  most. 

If  you  should  wish  to  do  me  a  very  great  favor,  you 
would  effect  this  by  writing  to  me  a  few  lines,  which 
would  solace  me  much.  Art  unites  all ;  how  much  more, 
then,  true  artists  1  and  perhaps  you  may  deem  me  wor- 
thy of  being  included  in  that  number. 

With  the  highest  esteem,  your  friend  and  servant, 

LUDWIO  VAN  BEETHOVEN. 
LUDWIO  CHBRUBIHI. 

Cherubini's  admiration  of  the  great  German  is 
indicated  in  an  anecdote  told  by  Professor  Ella. 
The  master  rebuked  a  pupil  who,  in  referring  to 
a  performance  of  a  Beethoven  symphony,  dwelt 
mostly  on  the  executive  excellence  :  "  Young  man, 
let  your  sympathies  be  first  wedded  to  the  cre- 
ation, and  be  you  less  fastidious  of  the  execution  ; 
accept  the  interpretation,  and  think  more  of  the 


CHERUBIM   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS.        169 

creation  of  these  musical  works  which  are  written 
for  all  time  and  all  nations,  models  for  imitation 
and  above  all  criticism." 

VIII. 

'As  a  man  Cherubini  presented  himself  in  many 
different  aspects.  Extremely  nervous,  brusque, 
irritable,  and  absolutely  independent,  he  was  apt 
to  offend  and  repel.  But  under  his  stern  reserve 
of  character  there  beat  a  warm  heart  and  gener- 
ous sympathies.  This  is  shown  by  the  fact  that, 
in  spite  of  the  unevenness  of  his  temper,  he  was 
almost  worshiped  by  those  around  him.  Auber, 
Halevy,  Berton,  Boieldieu,  Mehul,  Spontini,  and 
Adam,  who  were  so  intimately  associated  with  him, 
speak  of  him  with  words  of  the  warmest  affection. 
Halevy,  indeed,  rarely  alluded  to  him  without 
tears  rushing  to  his  eyes  ;  and  the  slightest  term 
of  disrespect  excited  his  warmest  indignation.  It 
is  recorded  that,  after  rebuking  a  pupil  with  sar- 
castic severity,  his  fine  face  would  relax  with  a 
smile  so  affectionate  and  genial  that  his  whilom 
victim  could  feel  nothing  but  enthusiastic  respect. 
Without  one  taint  of  envy  in  his  nature,  conscious 
of  his  own  extraordinary  powers,  he  was  quick  to 
recognize  genius  in  others  ;  and  his  hearty  praise 
of  the  powers  of  his  rivals  shows  how  sound  and 
generous  the  heart  was  under  his  irritability.  His 
proneness  to  satire  and  power  of  epigram  made 
him  enemies,  but  even  these  yielded  to  the  suavity 


170  <;REAT  ITALIAN  AND  FRENCH  COMPOSERS. 

and  fascination  which  alternated  with  his  bitter 
moods.  His  sympathies  were  peculiarly  open  for 
young  musicians.  Mendelssohn  and  Liszt  were 
stimulated  by  his  warm  and  encouraging  praise 
when  they  first  visited  Paris  ;  and  even  Berlioz, 
whose  turbulent  conduct  in  the  Conservatory  had 
so  embittered  him  at  various  times,  was  heartily 
applauded  when  his  first  great  mass  was  produced. 
Arnold  gives  us  the  following  pleasant  picture  of 
Cherubini : 

"  Cherubini  in  society  was  outwardly  silent, 
modest,  unassuming,  pleasing,  obliging,  and  pos- 
sessed of  the  finest  manners.  At  the  same  time,  he 
who  did  not  know  that  he  was  with  Cherubini  would 
think  him  stern  and  reserved,  so  well  did  the  com- 
poser know  how  to  conceal  everything,  if  only  to 
avoid  ostentation.  He  truly  shunned  brag  or 
speaking  of  himself.  Cherubim's  voice  was  feeble, 
probably  from  narrow-chested  ness,  and  somewhat 
hoarse,  but  was  otherwise  soft  and  agreeable.  His 
I'Yench  was  Italianized.  .  .  .  His  head  was  bent 
forward,  his  nose  was  large  and  aquiline  ;  his  eye- 
brows were  thick,  black,  and  somewhat  bushy, 
overshadowing  his  eyes.  His  eyes  were  dark,  and 
glittered  with  an  extraordinary  brilliancy  that 
animated  in  a  wonderful  way  the  whole  face.  A 
thin  lock  of  hair  came  over  the  center  of  his  fore- 
head, and  somehow  gave  to  his  countenance  a 
peculiar  softness." 

The  picture  painted  by  Ingres,  the  great  artist, 


CHERUBINI   AND    HIS   PllEDECESSORS.        171 

now  in  the  Luxembourg  gallery,  represents  the 
composer  with  Polyhymnia  in  the  background 
stretching  out  her  hand  over  him.  His  face, 
framed  in  waving  silvery  hair,  is  full  of  majesty 
and  brightness,  and  the  eye  of  piercing  luster. 
Cherubini  was  so  gratified  by  this  effort  of  the 
painter  that  he  sent  him  a  beautiful  canon  set  to 
words  of  his  own.  Thus  his  latter  years  were 
spent  in  the  society  of  the  great  artists  and  wits 
of  Paris,  revered  by  all,  and  recognized,  after 
Beethoven's  death,  as  the  musical  giant  of  Eu- 
rope. Rossini,  Meyerbeer,  Weber,  Schumann — 
in  a  word,  the  representatives  of  the  most  diverse 
schools  of  composition — bowed  equally  before  this 
great  name.  Rossini,  who  was  his  antipodes  in 
genius  and  method,  felt  his  loss  bitterly,  and  after 
his  death  sent  Cherubini's  portrait  to  his  widow 
with  these  touching  words  :  "  Here,  my  dear 
madam,  is  the  portrait  of  a  great  man,  who  is  as 
young  in  your  heart  as  he  is  in  my  mind." 

Actively  engaged  as  Director  of  the  Conserva- 
tory, which  he  governed  with  consummate  ability, 
his  old  age  was  further  employed  in  producing 
that  series  of  great  masses  which  rank  with  the 
symphonies  of  Beethoven.  His  creative  instinct 
and  the  fire  of  his  imagination  remained  unim- 
paired to  the  time  of  his  death.  Mendelssohn  in 
a  letter  to  Moscheles  speaks  of  him  as  "  that  truly 
wonderful  old  man,  whose  genius  seems  bathed  in 
immortal  youth."  His  opera  of  "  Ali  Baba,"  com- 


17^  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

posed  at  seventy-six,  though  inferior  to  his  other 
dramatic  works,  is  full  of  beautiful  and  original 
music,  and  was  immediately  produced  in  several 
of  the  principal  capitals  of  Europe  ;  and  the  sec- 
ond Requiem  mass,  written  in  hia  eightieth  year, 
is  one  of  his  masterpieces. 

On  the  12th  of  March,  1842,  the  old  composer 
died,  surrounded  by  his  affectionate  family  and 
friends.  Hi&  fatal  illness  had  been  brought  on  in 
part  by  grief  for  the  death  of  his  son-in-law,  M. 
Turcas,  to  whom  he  was  most  tenderly  attached. 
His  funeral  was  one  of  great  military  and  civic 
magnificence,  and  royalty  itself  could  not  have 
been  honored  with  more  splendid  obsequies.  The 
congregation  of  men  great  in  arms  and  state,  in 
music,  painting,  and  literature,  who  did  honor  to 
the  occasion,  has  rarely  been  equaled.  His  own 
noble  Requiem  mass,  composed  the  year  before 
his  death,  was  given  at  the  funeral  services  in  the 
church  of  St.  Roch  by  the  finest  orchestra  and 
voices  in  Europe.  Similar  services  were  held 
throughout  Europe,  and  everywhere  the  opera- 
houses  were  draped  in  black.  Perhaps  the  death 
of  no  musician  ever  called  forth  such  universal 
exhibitions  of  sorrow  and  reverence. 

Cherubini's  life  extended  from  the  early  part 
of  the  reign  of  Louis  XVI.  to  that  of  Louis  Phi- 
lippe, and  was  contemporaneous  with  many  of  the 
most  remarkable  events  in  modern  history.  The 
energy  and  passion  which  convulsed  society  dur- 


CHERUBIM   AND   HIS   PREDECESSORS        173 

ing  his  youth  and  early  manhood  undoubtedly 
had  much  to  do  in  stimulating  that  robust  and 
virile  quality  in  his  mind  which  gave  such  charac- 
ter to  his  compositions.  The  fecundity  of  his  in- 
tellect is  shown  in  the  fact  that  he  produced  four 
hundred  and  thirty  works,  out  of  which  only 
eighty  have  been  published.  In  this  catalogue 
there  are  twenty-five  operas  and  eleven  masses. 

As  an  operatic  composer  he  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  modern  French  school.  Uniting  the 
melody  of  the  Italian  with  the  science  of  the 
German,  his  conceptions  had  a  dramatic  fire  and 
passion  which  were,  however,  free  from  anything 
appertaining  to  the  sensational  and  meretricious. 
His  forms  were  indeed  classically  severe,  and  his 
style  is  defined  by  Adolphe  Adam  as  the  resur- 
rection of  the  old  Italian  school,  enriched  by  the 
discoveries  of  modern  harmony.  Though  he  was 
the  creator  of  French  opera  as  we  know  it  now, 
he  was  free  from  its  vagaries  and  extravagances. 
He  set  its  model  in  the  dramatic  vigor  and  pictu- 
resqueness,  the  clean-cut  forms,  and  the  noble  in- 
strumentation which  mark  such  masterpieces  as 
"  Faniska,"  "  Mede"e,"  "  Les  Deux  Journees,"  and 
"  Lodo'iska."  The  purity,  classicism,  and  wealth 
of  ideas  in  these  works  have  always  caused  them 
to  be  cited  as  standards  of  ideal  excellence.  The 
reforms  in  opera  of  which  Gluck  was  the  protago- 
nist, and  Wagner  the  extreme  modern  exponent, 

characterize  the   dramatic   works   of   Cherubini, 
12 


174  GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH  COMPOSERS. 

though  he  keeps  them  within  that  artistic  limit 
which  a  proper  regard  for  melodic  beauty  pre- 
scribes. In  the  power  and  propriety  of  musical 
declamation  his  operas  are  conceded  to  be  with- 
out a  superior.  His  overtures  hold  their  place  in 
classical  music  as  ranking  with  the  best  ever  writ- 
ten, and  show  a  richness  of  resource  and  knowl- 
edge of  form  in  treating  the  orchestra  which  his 
his  contemporaries  admitted  were  only  equaled  by 
Beethoven. 

Cherubim's  place  in  ecclesiastical  music  is 
that  by  which  he  is  best  known  to  the  musical 
public  of  to-day  ;  for  his  operas,  owing  to  the  im- 
mense demands  they  make  on  the  dramatic  and 
vocal  resources  of  the  artist,  are  but  rarely  pre- 
sented in  France,  Germany,  and  England,  and 
never  in  America.  They  are  only  given  where 
music  is  loved  on  account  of  its  noble  traditions, 
and  not  for  the  mere  sake  of  idle  and  luxurious 
amusement.  As  a  composer  of  masses,  however, 
<  'herubini's  genius  is  familiar  to  all  who  frequent 
ilic  services  of  the  Roman  Church.  His  relation 
to  the  music  of  Catholicism  accords  with  that  of 
Sebastian  Bach  to  the  music  of  Protestantism. 
Haydn,  Mozart,  and  even  Beethoven,  are  held  by 
the  best  critics  to  be  his  inferiors  in  this  form  of 
composition.  His  richness  of  melody,  sense  of 
dramatic  color,  and  great  command  of  orchestral 
effects,  gave  him  commanding  power  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  religious  sentiments  ;  while  an  ardent 


,  SPOXTIXI,  AXD   IIALfiVY.  175 

faith  inspired  with  passion,  sweetness,  and  devo- 
tion what  Place  styles  his  "  sublime  visions." 
Miel,  one  of  his  most  competent  critics,  writes  of 
him  in  this  eloquent  strain  :  "  If  he  represents  the 
passion  and  death  of  Christ,  the  heart  feels  itself 
wounded  with  the  most  sublime  emotion  ;  and 
when  he  recounts  the  '  Last  Judgment '  the  blood 
freezes  with  dread  at  the  redoubled  and  menacing 
calls  of  the  exterminating  angel.  All  those  admi- 
rable pictures  that  the  Raphaels  and  Michael  An- 
gelos  have  painted  with  colors  and  the  brush,  Che- 
rubini  brings  forth  with  the  voice  and  orchestra." 
In  brief,  if  Cherubini  is  the  founder  of  a  later 
school  of  opera,  and  the  model  which  his  suc- 
cessors have  always  honored  and  studied  if  they 
have  not  always  followed,  no  less  is  he  the  chief 
of  a  later,  and  by  common  consent  the  greatest, 
school  of  modern  church  music. 


M^HUL,  SPONTINI,  AND  HAL^VY. 
i. 

THE  influence  of  Gluck  was  not  confined  to 
Cherubini,  but  was  hardly  less  manifest  in  mold- 
ing the  style  and  conceptions  of  Mehul  and  Spon- 
tini,*  who  held  prominent  places  in  the  history  of 

*  It  is  a  little  singular  that  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
names  in  the  annals  of  French  music  were  foreigners.  Thus 
Gluck  was  a  German,  as  also  was  Meyerbeer,  while  Cherubini 
and  Spontini  were  Italians. 


176  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

the  French  opera.  Henri  Etienne  Mehul  was 
the  son  of  a  French  soldier  stationed  at  the  Givet 
barracks,  where  he  was  born  June  24,  1763.  His 
early  love  of  music  secured  for  him  instructions 
from  the  blind  organist  of  the  Franciscan  church 
at  that  garrison  town,  under  whom  he  made  as- 
tonishing progress.  He  soon  found  he  had  out- 
stripped the  attainments  of  his  teacher,  and  con- 
trived to  place  himself  under  the  tuition  of  the 
celebrated  Wilhelm  Hemser,  who  was  organist  at 
a  neighboring  monastery.  Here  Mehul  spent  a 
number  of  happy  and  useful  years,  studying  com- 
position with  Hemser  and  literature  with  the  kind 
monks,  who  hoped  to  persuade  their  young  charge 
to  devote  himself  to  ecclesiastical  life. 

Mehul's  advent  in  Paris,  whither  he  went  at 
the  age  of  sixteen,  soon  opened  his  eyes  to  his 
true  vocation,  that  of  a  dramatic  composer.  The 
excitement  over  the  contest  between  Gluck  and 
Piccini  was  then  at  its  height,  and  the  youthful 
musician  was  not  long  in  espousing  the  side  of 
Gluck  with  enthusiasm.  He  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Gluck  accidentally,  the  great  chevalier 
interposing  one  night  to  prevent  his  being  ejected 
from  the  theatre,  into  one  of  whose  boxes  Mehul 
had  slipped  without  buying  a  ticket.  Thence  for- 
ward the  youth  had  free  access  to  the  opera,  and 
the  friendship  and  tuition  of  one  of  the  master 
minds  of  the  age. 

An  opera,  "  Cora  et  Alonzo,"  had  been  com- 


MEHUL,  SPONTIXI,  AND  HAL^VY.  177 

posed  at  the  age  of  twenty  and  accepted  at  the 
opera  ;  but  it  was  not  till  1790  that  he  got  a  hear- 
ing in  the  comic  opera  of  "  Euphrasque  et  Cora- 
din,"  composed  under  the  direction  of  Gluck, 
This  work  was  brilliantly  successful,  and  "  Stra- 
tonice,"  which  aopeared  two  years  afterward, 
established  his  reputation.  The  French  critics 
describe  both  these  early  works  as  being  equally 
admirable  in  melody,  orchestral  accompaniment, 
and  dramatic  effect.  The  stormiest  year  of  the 
revolution  was  not  favorable  to  operatic  composi- 
tion, and  Mehul  wrote  but  little  music  except 
pieces  for  republican  festivities,  much  to  his  own 
disgust,  for  he  was  by  no  means  a  warm  friend  of 
the  republic. 

In  1797  he  produced  his  "  Le  Jeune  Henri," 
which  nearly  caused  a  riot  in  the  theatre.  The 
story  displeased  the  republican  audience,  who 
hissed  and  hooted  till  the  turmoil  compelled  the 
fall  of  the  curtain.  They  insisted,  however,  on 
the  overture,  which  is  one  of  great  beauty,  being 
performed  over  and  over  again,  a  compliment 
which  has  rarely  been  accorded  to  any  composer. 
M eh ul's  appointment  as  inspector  and  professor 
in  the  newly  organized  Conservatory,  at  the  same 
time  with  Cherubini,  left  him  but  little  leisure  for 
musical  composition  ;  but  he  found  time  to  write 
the  spectacular  opera  "  Adrian,"  which  was  fierce- 
ly condemned  by  a  republican  audience,  not  as  a 
musical  failure,  but  because  their  alert  and  sus- 


178  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

picious  tempers  suspected  in  it  covert  allusions"  to 
the  dead  monarchy.  Even  David,  the  painter, 
said  he  would  set  the  torch  to  the  opera-house 
rather  than  witness  the  triumph  of  a  king.  In 
1806  Mehul  produced  the  opera  "Uthal,"  a  work 
of  striking  vigor  founded  on  an  Ossianic  theme, 
in  which  he  made  the  innovation  of  banishing  the 
violins  from  the  orchestra,  substituting  therefor 
the  violas. 

It  was  in  "Joseph,"  however,  composed  in 
1807,  that  this  composer  vindicated  his  right  to 
be  called  a  musician  of  great  genius,  and  entered 
fully  into  a  species  of  composition  befitting  his 
grand  style.  Most  of  his  contemporaries  were 
incapable  of  appreciating  the  greatness  of  the 
work,  though  his  gifted  rival  Cherubini  gave  it 
the  warmest  praise.  In  Germany  it  met  with  in- 
stant and  extended  success,  and  it  is  one  of  the 
few  French  operas  of  the  old  school  which  still 
continue  to  be  given  on  the  German  stage.  In 
England  it  is  now  frequently  sung  as  an  oratorio. 
It  is  on  this  remarkable  work  that  Mehul's  lasting 
reputation  as  a  composer  rests  outside  of  his  own 
nation.  The  construction  of  the  opera  of  "Jo 
seph  "  is  characterized  by  admirable  symmetry  of 
form,  dramatic  power,  and  majesty  of  the  choral 
and  concerted  passages,  while  the  sustained  beauty 
of  the  orchestration  is  such  as  to  challenge  com- 
parison with  the  greatest  works  of  his  contempo- 
raries. Such  at  least  is  the  verdict  of  Fetis,  who 


MEHUL,  SrOXTINl,  AND   HAL^VY.  179 

was  by  no  means  inclined  to  be  over-indulgent  in 
criticising  Mehul.  The  fault  in  this  opera,  as  in 
all  of  Mehul's  works,  appears  to  have  been  a  lack 
of  bright  and  graceful  melody,  though  in  the 
modern  tendencies  of  music  this  defect  is  rapidly 
being  elevated  into  a  virtue. 

The  last  eight  years  of  Mehul's  life  were  de- 
pressed by  melancholy  and  suffering,  proceeding 
from  pulmonary  disease.  He  resigned  his  place 
in  the  Conservatory,  and  retired  to  a  pleasant 
little  estate  near  Paris,  where  he  devoted  himseL 
to  raising  flowers,  and  found  some  solace  in  the 
society  of  his  musical  friends  and  former  pupils, 
who  were  assiduous  in  their  attentions.  Finally 
becoming  dangerously  ill,  he  went  to  the  island 
of  Hyeres  to  find  a  more  genial  climate.  But 
here  he  pined  for  Paris  and  the  old  companion- 
ships, and  suffered  more  perhaps  by  fretting  for 
the  intellectual  cheer  of  his  old  life  than  he 
gained  by  balmy  air  and  sunshine.  He  writes  to 
one  of  his  friends  after  a  short  stay  at  Hyeres  : 
"  I  have  broken  up  all  my  habits  ;  I  am  deprived 
of  all  my  old  friends  ;  I  am  alone  at  the  end  of 
the  world,  surrounded  by  people  whose  language 
I  scarcely  understand  ;  and  all  this  sacrifice  to 
obtain  a  little  more  sun.  The  air  which  best 
agrees  with  me  is  that  which  I  breathe  among 
you."  He  returned  to  Paris  for  a  few  weeks 
only,  to  breathe  his  last  on  October  18,  1817, 
aged  fifty-four. 


180  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

Mehul  was  a  high-minded  and  benevolent  man, 
wrapped  up  in  his  art,  and  singularly  childlike  in 
the  p"actical  affairs  of  life.  Abhorring  intrigue, 
he  was  above  all  petty  jealousies,  and  even  sacri- 
ficed the  situation  of  chapel-master  under  Napo- 
leon, because  he  believed  it  should  have  been  given 
to  the  greatest  of  his  rivals,  Cherubini.  When 
he  ^ied  Paris  recognized  his  goodness  as  a  man  as 
w  i*:  as  greatness  as  a  musician  by  a  touching  and 
spontaneous  expression  of  grief,  and  funeral  hon- 
ors were  given  him  throughout  Europe.  In  1822 
his  statue  was  crowned  on  the  stage  of  the  Grand 
Opera,  at  a  performance  of  his  "  Valentine  de 
Rohan."  Notwithstanding  his  early  death,  he 
composed  forty-two  operas,  and  modern  musicians 
and  critics  give  him  a  notable  place  among  those 
who  were  prominent  in  building  up  a  national 
stage.  A  pupil  and  disciple  of  Gluck,  a  cordial 
co-worker  with  Cherubini,  he  contributed  largely 
to  the  glory  of  French  music,  not  only  by  his  ge- 
nius as  a  composer,  but  by  his  important  labors  in 
tb°  reorganization  of  the  Conservatory,  that  nur- 
c^r/  which  has  fed  so  much  of  the  highest  musi- 
cal talent  of  the  world. 

ii. 

LUIGI  GASPARDO  PACIFICO  SPONTINI,  born  of 
peasant  parents  at  Majolati,  Italy,  November  14, 
1774,  displayed  his  musical  passion  at  an  early 
age.  Designed  for  holy  orders  from  childhood, 


SPOXTIXI,  AND   IIALtiVY.  181 

his  priestly  tutors  could  not  make  him  study  ;  but 
he  delighted  in  the  service  of  the  church,  with  its 
organ  and  choir  effects,  for  here  his  true  vocation 
asserted  itself.  He  was  wont,  too,  to  hide  in  the 
belfry,  and  revel  in  the  roaring  orchestra  of  met- 
al, when  the  chimes  were  rung.  On  one  occasion 
a  stroke  of  lightning  precipitated  him  from  his 
dangerous  perch  to  the  floor  below,  and  the  his- 
tory of  music  nearly  lost  one  of  its  great  lights. 
The  bias  of  his  nature  was  intractable,  and  he  was 
at  last  permitted  to  study  music,  at  first  under  the 
charge  of  his  uncle  Joseph,  the  cure  of  Jesi,  and 
finally  at  the  Naples  Conservatory,  where  he  was 
entered  at  the  age  of  sixteen. 

His  first  opera,  "  I  Puntigli  delle  Donne," 
was  composed  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and  per- 
formed at  Rome,  where  it  was  kindly  received. 
The  French  invasion  unsettled  the  affairs  of  Italy, 
and  Spontini  wandered  somewhat  aimlessly,  una- 
ble to  exercise  his  talents  to  advantage  till  he  went 
to  Paris  in  1803,  where  he  found  a  large  number 
of  brother  Italian  musicians,  and  a  cordial  recep- 
tion, though  himself  an  obscure  and  untried  youth. 
He  produced  several  minor  works  on  the  French 
stage,  noticeably  among  them  the  one-act  opera 
of  "  Milton,"  in  which  he  stepped  boldly  out  of 
his  Italian  mannerism,  and  entered  on  that  path 
afterward  pursued  with  such  brilliancy  and  bold- 
ness. Yet,  though  his  talents  began  to  be  recog- 
nized, life  was  a  trying  struggle,  and  it  is  doubt- 


182  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

ful  if  he  could  have  overcome  the  difficulties  in 
his  way  when  he  was  ready  to  produce  "  La  Ves- 
tale,"  had  he  not  enlisted  the  sympathies  of  the 
Empress  Josephine,  who  loved  music,  and  played 
the  part  of  patroness  as  gracefully  as  she  did  all 
others. 

By  Napoleon's  order  "  La  Vestale "  was  re- 
hearsed against  the  wish  of  the  manager  and  crit- 
ics of  the  Academy  of  Music,  and  produced  De- 
cember 15,  1807.  Previous  to  this  some  parts  of 
it  had  been  performed  privately  at  the  Tuileries, 
and  the  Emperor  had  said  :  "  M.  Spontini,  your 
opera  abounds  in  fine  airs  and  effective  duets. 
The  march  to  the  place  of  execution  is  admiral)]).'. 
You  will  certainly  have  the  great  success  you  so 
well  deserve."  The  imperial  prediction  was  jus- 
tified by  consecutive  performances  of  one  hun- 
dred nights.  His  next  work,  "  Fernand  Cortez," 
sustained  the  impression  of  genius  earned  for 
him  by  its  predecessor.  The  seem-  of  the  revolt 
is  pronounced  by  competent  critics  to  be  one 
of  the  finest  dramatic  conceptions  in  operatic 
music. 

In  1809  Spontini  married  the  niece  of  Erard, 
the  great  pianoforte-maker,  and  was  called  to  the 
direction  of  the  Italian  opera  ;  but  he  retained 
this  position  only  two  years,  from  the  disagreeable 
conditions  he  had  to  contend  with,  and  the  cabals 
that  were  formed  against  him.  The  year  1814 
witnessed  the  production  of  "Pelage,"  and  two 


MEHUL,  SPONTINI,  AND   HALEVY.  183 

years  later  "  Les  Dieux  Rivaux  "  was  composed, 
in  conjunction  with  Persuis,  Berton,  and  Kreut- 
zer  ;  but  neither  work  attracted  much  attention. 
The  opera  of  "  Olympic,"  worked  out  on  the  plan 
of  "  La  Vestale  "  and  "  Cortez,"  was  produced 
in  1819.  Spontini  was  embittered  by  its  poor 
success,  for  he  had  built  many  hopes  on  it,  and 
wrought  long  and  patiently.  That  he  was  not  in 
his  best  vein,  and  like  many  other  men  of  genius 
was  not  always  able  to  estimate  justly  his  own 
work,  is  undeniable  ;  for  Spontini,  contrary  to  the 
opinion  of  his  contemporaries  and  of  posterity, 
regarded  this  as  his  best  opera.  His  acceptance 
of  the  Prussian  King's  offer  to  become  musical 
director  at  Berlin  was  the  result  of  his  chagrin. 
Here  he  remained  for  twenty  years.  "  Olympic  " 
succeeded  better  at  Berlin,  though  the  boisterous- 
ness  of  the  music  seems  to  have  called  out  some 
sharp  strictures  even  among  the  Berlinese,  whose 
penchant  for  noisy  operatic  effects  was  then  as  now 
a  butt  for  the  satire  of  the  musical  wits.  Apro- 
pos of  the  long  run  of  "  Olympic  "  at  Berlin,  an 
amusing  anecdote  is  told  on  the  authority  of  Cas- 
tel-Blaze.  A  wealthy  amateur  had  become  deaf, 
and  suffered  much  from  his  deprivation  of  the  en- 
joyment of  his  favorite  art.  After  trying  many 
physicians,  he  was  treated  in  a  novel  fashion  by 
his  latest  doctor.  "  Come  with  me  to  the  opera 
this  evening,"  wrote  down  the  doctor.  "  What's 
the  use  ?  I  can't  hear  a  note,"  was  the  impatient  re- 


184  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

joinder.  "  Never  mind,"  said  the  other  ;  "  come, 
and  you  will  see  something  at  all  events."  So  the 
twain  repaired  to  the  theatre  to  hear  Spontini's 
"  Olympic."  All  went  well  till  one  of  the  over- 
whelming finales,  which  happened  to  be  played 
that  evening  more  fortissimo  than  usual.  The 
patient  turned  around  beaming  with  delight,  ex- 
claiming, "  Doctor,  I  can  hear."  As  there  was  no 
reply,  the  happy  patient  again  said,  "  Doctor,  I 
tell  you,  you  have  cured  me."  A  blank  stare  alone 
met  him,  and  he  found  that  the  doctor  was  as  deaf 
as  a  post,  having  fallen  a  victim  to  his  own  pre- 
scription. The  German  wits  had  a  similar  joke 
afterward  at  Halevy's  expense.  The  "Punch" 
of  Vienna  said  that  Halevy  made  the  brass  play 
so  loudly  that  the  French  horn  was  actually  blown 
quite  straight. 

Among  the  works  produced  at  Berlin  were 
"  Ntirmahal,"  in  1825  ;  "  Alcidor,"  the  same  year; 
and  in  1829,  "  Agnes  von  llohenstaufen."  Various 
other  new  works  were  given  from  time  to  time,  but 
none  achieved  more  than  a  brief  hearing.  Spon- 
tini's stiff-necked  and  arrogant  will  kept  him  in 
continual  trouble,  and  the  Berlin  press  aimed  its 
arrows  at  him  with  incessant  virulence  :  a  war 
which  the  composer  fed  by  his  bitter  and  witty 
rejoinders,  for  he  was  an  adept  in  the  art  of  in- 
vective. Had  he  not  been  singularly  adroit,  he 
would  have  been  obliged  to  leave  his  post.  But 
he  gloried  in  the  disturbance  he  created,  and  was 


ME1IUL,  SPOXTINI,  AND   IIALEVV.  185 

proof  against  the  assaults  of  his  numerous  ene- 
mies, made  so  largely  by  his  having  come  of  the 
French  school,  then  as  now  an  all-sufficient  cause 
of  Teutonic  dislike.  Spontini's  unbending  intol- 
erance, however,  at  last  undermined  his  musical 
supremacy,  so  long  held  good  with  an  iron  hand  ; 
and  an  intrigue  headed  by  Count  Brtihl,  intendant 
of  the  Royal  Theatre,  at  last  obliged  him  to  re- 
sign after  a  rule  of  a  score  of  years.  His  influence 
on  the  lyric  theatre  of  Berlin,  however,  had  been 
valuable,  and  he  had  the  glory  of  forming  singers 
among  the  Prussians,  who  until  his  time  had 
thought  more  of  cornet-playing  than  of  beautiful 
and  true  vocalization.  The  Prussian  King  al- 
lowed him  on  his  departure  a  pension  of  16,000 
francs. 

When  Spontini  returned  to  Paris,  though  he 
was  appointed  member  of  the  Academy  of  Fine 
Arts,  he  was  received  with  some  coldness  by  the 
musical  world.  He  had  no  little  difficulty  in  get- 
ting a  production  of  his  operas  ;  only  the  Con- 
servatory remained  faithful  to  him,  and  in  their 
hall  large  audiences  gathered  to  hear  composi- 
tions to  which  the  opera-house  denied  its  stage. 
New  idols  attracted  the  public,  and  Spontini, 
though  burdened  with  all  the  orders  of  Europe, 
was  obliged  to  rest  in  the  traditions  of  his  earlier 
career.  A  passionate  desire  to  see  his  native  land 
before  death  made  him  leave  Paris  in  1850,  and 
he  went  to  Majolati,  the  town  of  his  birth,  where 


186  <>REAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

he  died  after  a  residence  of  a  few  months.     His 
cradle  was  his  tomb. 

in. 

A  WELL-KNOWN  musical  critic  sums  up  his 
judgment  of  Hale" vy  in  these  words  :  "  If  in 
France  a  contemporary  of  Louis  XIV.,  an  ad- 
mirer of  Racine,  could  return  to  us,  and,  full  of 
the  remembrance  of  his  earthly  career  under  that 
renowned  monarch,  he  should  wish  to  find  the 
nobly  pathetic,  the  elevated  inspiration,  the  ma- 
jestic arrangements  of  the  olden  times  upon  a 
modern  stage,  we  would  not  take  him  to  the  Th6- 
atre  Fran9ais,  but  to  the  Opera  on  the  day  in 
which  one  of  Halevy's  works  was  given." 

Unlike  M6hul  and  Spontini,  with  whom  in 
point  of  style  and  method  Halevy  must  be  asso- 
ciated, he  was  not  in"  any  direct  sense  a  disciple 
of  Gluck,  but  inherited  the  influence  of  the  latter 
through  his  great  successor  Cherubini,  of  whom 
Halevy  was  the  favorite  pupil  and  the  intimate 
friend.  Fromental  Halevy,  a  scion  of  the  He- 
brew race,  which  has  furnished  so  many  geniuses 
to  the  art  world,  left  a  deep  impress  on  his  times, 
not  simply  by  his  genius  and  musical  knowledge, 
which  was  profound,  varied,  and  accurate,  but  by 
the  elevation  and  nobility  which  lifted  his  mark 
up  to  a  higher  level  than  that  which  we  accord  to 
mere  musical  gifts,  be  they  ever  so  rich  and  fer- 
tile. The  motive  that  inspired  his  life  is  suggested 


MEIIUL,  sroXTLVI,  AND   HALfiVV.  187 

in  his  devout  saying  that  music  is  an  art  that 
God  has  given  us,  in  which  the  voices  of  all  na- 
tions may  unite  their  prayers  in  one  harmonious 
rhythm. 

Halevy  was  a  native  of  Paris,  born  May  27, 
1799.  He  entered  the  Conservatory  at  the  age  of 
eleven  years,  where  he  soon  attracted  the  particu- 
lar attention  of  Cherubini.  When  he  was  twenty 
the  Institute  awarded  him  the  grand  prize  for  the 
composition  of  a  cantata  ;  and  he  also  received  a 
government  pension  which  enabled  him  to  dwell 
at  Rome  for  two  years,  assiduously  cultivating 
his  talents  in  composition.  Hale"vy  returned  to 
Paris,  but  it  was  not  till  1827  that  he  succeeded 
in  having  an  opera  produced.  This  portion  of  his 
life  was  full  of  disappointment  and  chilled  ambi- 
tions ;  for,  in  spite  of  the  warm  friendship  of 
Cherubini,  who  did  everything  to  advance  his  in- 
terests, he  seemed  to  make  but  slow  progress  in 
popular  estimation,  though  a  number  of  operas 
were  produced. 

Hal6vy's  full  recognition,  however,  was  found 
in  the  great  work  of  "  La  Juive,"  produced  Feb- 
ruary 23,  1835,  with  lavish  magnificence.  It  is 
said  that  the  managers  of  the  Opera  expended 
150,000  francs  in  putting  it  on  the  stage.  This 
opera,  which  surpasses  all  his  others  in  passion, 
strength,  and  dignity  of  treatment,  was  interpret' 
ed  by  the  greatest  singers  in  Europe,  and  the  pub- 
lic reception  at  once  assured  the  composer  that  his 


188  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

place  in  music  was  fixed.  Many  envious  critics, 
however,  declaimed  against  him,  asserting  that 
success  was  not  the  legitimate  desert  of  the  opera, 
but  of  its  magnificent  presentation.  Halevy  an- 
swered his  detractors  by  giving  the  world  a  de- 
lightful comic  opera,  "  L'^clair,"  which  at  once 
testified  to  the  genuineness  of  his  musical  inspira- 
tion and  the  versatility  of  his  powers,  and  was 
received  by  the  public  with  even  more  pleasure 
than  "La  Juive." 

Hale'vy's  next  brilliant  stroke  (three  unsuccess- 
ful works  in  the  mean  while  having  been  written) 
was  "  La  Reine  de  Chypre,"  produced  in  1841. 
A  somewhat  singular  fact  occurred  during  the 
performance  of  this  opera.  One  of  the  singers, 
every  time  he  came  to  the  passage, 

Oe  mortel  qu'on  remarque 

Tient-il 
Plus  que  nous  de  la  Parque 

Lefil? 

was  in  the  habit  of  fixing  his  eyes  on  a  certain 
proscenium  box  wherein  were  wont  to  sit  certain 
notabilities  in  politics  and  finance.  As  several  of 
these  died  during  the  first  run  of  the  work,  super- 
stitious people  thought  the  box  was  bewitched, 
and  no  one  cared  to  occupy  it.  Two  fine  works, 
"  Charles  VI."  and  "  Le  Val  d'Andorre,"  succeed- 
ed at  intervals  of  a  few  years  ;  and  in  1849  the  no- 
ble music  to  JEschylus's  "  Prometheus  Bound  "  was 


MfiHUL,  SPOXTIXI,  AND   HALtiVY.  189 

written  with  an  idea  of  reproducing  the  supposed 
effects  of  the  enharmonic  style  of  the  Greeks. 

Halevy's  opera  of  "  The  Tempest,"  written  for 
London,  and  produced  in  1850,  rivaled  the  suc- 
cess of  "  La  Juive."  Balfe  led  the  orchestra,  and 
its  popularity  caused  the  basso  Lablache  to  write 
the  following  epigram  : 

The  "  Tempest "  of  Halevy 
Differs  from  other  tempests. 
These  rain  hail, 
That  rains  gold. 

The  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  elected  the  composer 
secretary  in  1854,  and  in  the  exercise  of  his  du- 
ties, which  involved  considerable  literary  compo- 
sition, Halevy  showed  the  same  elegance  of  style 
and  good  taste  which  marked  his  musical  writings. 
He  did  not,  however,  neglect  his  own  proper  work, 
and  a  succession  of  operas,  which  were  cordially 
received,  proved  how  unimpaired  and  vigorous  his 
intellectual  faculties  remained. 

The  composer's  death  occurred  at  Nice,  whither 
he  had  gone  on  account  of  failing  strength,  March 
17,  1862.  His  last  moments  were  cheered  by  the 
attentions  of  his  family  and  the  consolations  of 
philosophy  and  literature,  which  he  dearly  loved 
to  discuss  with  his  friends.  His  ruling  passion  dis- 
played itself  shortly  before  his  end  in  characteris- 
tic fashion.  Trying  in  vain  to  reach  a  book  on 

the  table,  he  said  :    "  Can  I  do  nothing  now  in 
13 


190  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

time  ?  "  On  the  morning  of  his  death,  wishing  to 
be  turned  on  his  bed,  he  said  to  his  daughter, 
"  Lay  me  down  like  a  gamut,"  at  each  movement 
repeating  with  a  soft  smile,  " Do,  re,  mi"  etc., 
until  the  change  was  made.  These  were  his  last 
words. 

The  celebrated  French  critic  Sainte-Beuve  pays 
a  charming  tribute  to  Hal6vy,  whom  he  knew  and 
loved  well  : 

"  HaleVy  had  a  natural  talent  for  writing, 
which  he  cultivated  and  perfected  by  study,  by 
a  taste  for  reading  which  he  always  gratified  in 
the  intervals  of  labor,  in  his  study,  in  public  con- 
veyances—  everywhere,  in  fine,  when  he  had  a 
minute  to  spare.  He  could  isolate  himself  com- 
pletely in  the  midst  of  the  various  noises  of  his 
family,  or  the  conversation  of  the  drawing-room 
if  he  had  no  part  in  it.  He  wrote  music,  poetry, 
and  prose,  and  he  read  with  imperturbable  atten- 
tion while  people  around  him  talked. 

"  He  possessed  the  instinct  of  languages,  was 
familiar  with  German,  Italian,  English,  and  Latin, 
knew  something  of  Hebrew  and  Greek.  He  was 
conversant  with  etymology,  and  had  a  perfect 
passion  for  dictionaries.  It  was  often  difficult  for 
him  to  find  a  word  ;  for  on  opening  the  dictionary 
somewhere  near  the  word  for  which  he  was  look- 
ing, if  his  eye  chanced  to  fall  on  some  other,  ne 
matter  what,  he  stopped  to  read  that,  then  another 
and  another,  until  he  sometimes  forgot  the  word 


MfiHL'L,  SPOXT1XI,  AXD   HALtiVY.  191 

oe  sought.  It  is  singular  that  this  estimable  man, 
so  fully  occupied,  should  at  times  have  nourished 
some  secret  sadness.  Whatever  the  hidden  wound 
might  be,  none,  not  even  his  most  intimate  friends, 
knew  what  it  was.  lie  never  made  any  complaint. 
Halevy's  nature  was  rich,  open  and  communica- 
tive. He  was  well  organized,  accessible  to  the 
sweets  of  sociability  and  family  joys.  In  fine,  he 
had,  as  one  may  say,  too  many  strings  to  his  bow 
to  be  very  unhappy  for  any  length  of  time.  To 
define  him  practically,  I  would  say  he  was  a  bee 
that  had  not  lodged  himself  completely  in  his  hive, 
but  was  seeking  to  make  honey  elsewhere  too." 

IV. 

MBHUL  labored  successfully  in  adapting  the 
noble  and  severe  style  of  Gluck  to  the  changing 
requirements  of  the  French  stage.  The  turmoil 
and  passions  of  the  revolution  had  stirred  men's 
souls  to  the  very  roots,  and  this  influence  was  per- 
petuated and  crystallized  in  the  new  forms  given 
to  French  thought  by  Napoleon's  wonderful  career. 
M6hul's  musical  conceptions,  which  culminated  in 
the  opera  of  "  Joseph,"  were  characterized  by  a 
stir,  a  vigor,  and  largeness  of  dramatic  movement, 
which  came  close  to  the  familiar  life  of  that  re- 
markable period.  His  great  rival  Cherubini,  on 
the  other  hand,  though  no  less  truly  dramatic  in 
fitting  musical  expression  to  thought  and  passion, 
was  so  austere  and  rigid  in  his  ideals,  so  domi- 


192  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

nated  by  musical  form  and  an  accurate  science 
which  would  concede  nothing  to  popular  preju- 
dice and  ignorance,  that  he  won  his  laurels,  not 
by  force  of  the  natural  flow  of  popular  sympathy, 
but  by  the  sheer  might  of  his  genius.  Cherubini's 
severe  works  made  them  models  and  foundation 
stones  for  his  successors  in  French  music  ;  but 
Mi'hul  familiarized  his  audiences  with  strains  dig- 
nified yet  popular,  full  of  massive  effects  and  bril- 
liant combinations.  The  people  felt  the  tramp  of 
the  Napoleonic  armies  in  the  vigor  and  movement 
of  his  measures. 

Spontini  embodied  the  same  influences  and 
characteristics  in  still  larger  degree,  for  his  mu- 
sical genius  was  organized  on  a  more  massive 
plan.  Deficient  in  pure  graceful  melody  alike 
with  Mehul,  he  delighted  in  great  masses  of  tone 
and  vivid  orchestral  coloring.  His  music  was  full 
of  the  military  fire  of  his  age,  and  dealt  for  the 
most  part  with  the  peculiar  tastes  and  passions 
engendered  by  a  condition  of  chronic  warfare. 
Therefore  dramatic  movement  in  his  operas  was 
always  of  the  heroic  order,  and  never  touched  the 
more  subtile  and  complex  elements  of  life.  Spon- 
tini added  to  the  majestic  repose  and  ideality  of 
the  Gluck  music-drama  (to  use  a  name  now  natu- 
ralized in  art  by  Wagner)  the  keenest  dramatic 
vigor.  Though  he  had  a  strong  command  of  ef- 
fects by  his  power  of  delineation  and  delicacy  of 
detail,  his  prevalent  tastes  led  him  to  encumber 


,  SPOXTIXI,  AND   HALfiVY.  193 

his  music  too  often  with  overpowering  military 
effects,  alike  tonal  and  scenic.  Riehl,  a  great 
German  critic,  says  :  "  He  is  more  successful  in 
the  delineation  of  masses  and  groups  than  in  the 
portrayal  of  emotional  scenes  ;  his  rendering  of 
the  national  struggle  between  the  Spaniards  and 
Mexicans  in  '  Cortez '  is,  for  example,  admirable. 
He  is  likewise  most  successful  in  the  manage- 
ment of  large  masses  in  the  instrumentation.  In 
this  respect  he  was,  like  Napoleon,  a  great  tacti- 
cian." In  "La  Vestale"  Spontini  attained  his 
chef-d'oeuvre.  Schluter  in  his  "History  of  Mu- 
sic "  gives  it  the  following  encomium  :  "  His  por- 
trayal of  character  and  truthful  delineation  of 
passionate  emotion  in  this  opera  are  masterly  in- 
deed. The  subject  of  'La  Vestale'  (which  re- 
sembles that  of  'Norma,'  but  how  differently 
treated  !)  is  tragic  and  sublime  as  well  as  intensely 
emotional.  Julia,  the  heroine,  a  prey  to  guilty 
passion  ;  the  severe  but  kindly  high  priestess  ; 
Licinius,  the  adventurous  lover,  and  his  faithful 
friend  China  ;  pious  vestals,  cruel  priests,  bold 
warriors,  and  haughty  Romans,  are  represented 
with  statuesque  relief  and  finish.  Both  these 
works,  'La  Vestale'  (1807)  and  'Cortez' (1809), 
ire  among  the  finest  that  have  been  written  for 
the  stage  ;  they  are  remarkable  for  naturalness 
and  sublimeness,  qualities  lost  sight  of  in  the 
noisy  instrumentation  of  his  later  works." 

Halevy,  trained  under  the  influences  of  Cheru- 


194  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

bini,  was  largely  inspired  by  that  great  master's 
musical  purism  and  reverence  for  the  higher  laws 
of  his  art.  Ilalevy's  powerful  sense  of  the  dra- 
matic always  influenced  his  methods  and  sympa- 
thies. Not  being  a  composer  of  creative  imagina- 
tion, however,  the  melodramatic  element  is  more 
prominent  than  the  purely  tragic  or  comic.  His 
music  shows  remarkable  resources  in  the  produc- 
tion of  brilliant  and  captivating  though  always 
tasteful  effects,  which  rather  please  the  senses  arid 
the  fancy  than  stir  the  heart  and  imagination. 
Here  and  there  scattered  through  his  works,  nota- 
bly so  in  "  La  Juive,"  are  touches  of  emotion  and 
grandeur  ;  but  Hale"  vy  must  be  characterized  as  a 
composer  who  is  rather  distinguished  for  the  bril- 
liancy, vigor,  and  completeness  of  his  art  than  for 
the  higher  creative  power,  which  belongs  in  such 
preeminent  degree  to  men  like  Rossini  and  Weber, 
or  even  to  Auber,  Meyerbeer,  and  Gounod.  It  is 
nevertheless  true  that  Halevy  composed  works 
which  will  retain  a  high  rank  in  French  art. 
"La  Juive,"  "  Guido,"  "La  Reine  de  Chypre," 
and  "  Charles  VI."  are  noble  lyric  dramas,  full  of 
beauties,  though  it  is  said  they  can  never  be  seen 
to  the  best  advantage  off  the  French  stage.  Ha- 
lo vy's  genius  and  taste  in  music  bear  much  the 
same  relation  to  the  French  stage  as  do  those  of 
Verdi  to  the  Italian  stage  ;  though  the  former 
composer  is  conceded  by  critics  to  be  a  greater 
purist  in  musical  form,  if  he  rarely  equals  the 


BOlELDIEU   AND   AUBER.  195 

Italian  composer  in  the  splendid  bursts  of  musi- 
cal passion  with  which  the  latter  redeems  so  much 
that  is  meretricious  and  false,  and  the  charming 
melody  which  Verdi  shares  with  his  countrymen. 


BOlELDIEU  AND  AUBER. 


THE  French  school  of  light  opera,  founded  by 
Gretry,  reached  its  greatest  perfection  in  the  au- 
thors of  "  La  Dame  Blanche"  and  "  Fra  Diavolo," 
though  to  the  former  of  these  composers  must  be 
accorded  the  peculiar  distinction  of  having  given 
the  most  perfect  example  of  this  style  of  composi- 
tion. Fran  QO  is  Adrieu  Bo'ieldieu,  the  scion  of  a 
Norman  family,  was  born  at  Rouen,  December  16, 
1775.  He  received  his  early  musical  training  at 
the  hands  of  Broche,  a  great  musician  and  the  ca- 
thedral organist,  but  a  drunkard  and  brutal  task- 
master. At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  had  become  a 
good  pianist  and  knew  something  of  composition. 
At  all  events  his  passionate  love  of  the  theatre 
prompted  him  to  try  his  hand  at  an  opera,  which 
was  actually  performed  at  Rouen.  The  revolution 
which  made  such  havoc  with  the  clergy  and  their 
dependents  ruined  the  Bo'ieldieu  family  (the  elder 
Bo'ieldieu  had  been  secretary  of  the  archiepiscopal 
diocese),  and  young  Franjois,  at  the  age  of  nine' 


196   GREAT  ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

teen,  was  set  adrift  on  the  world,  his  heart  full  of 
hope  and  his  ambition  bent  on  Paris,  whither  he  set 
his  feet.  Paris,  however,  proved  a  stern  stepmother 
at  the  outset,  as  she  always  has  been  to  the  strug- 
gling and  unsuccessful.  He  was  obliged  to  tune 
pianos  for  his  living,  and  was  glad  to  sell  his  bril- 
liant chansons,  which  afterward  made  a  fortune 
for  his  publisher,  for  a  few  francs  apiece. 

Several  years  of  hard  work  and  bitter  privation 
finally  culminated  in  the  acceptance  of  an  opera, 
"  La  Famille  Suisse,"  at  the  Theatre  Faydeau  in 
1796,  where  it  was  given  on  alternate  nights  with 
Cherubim's  "  Med6e."  Other  operas  followed  in 
rapid  succession,  among  which  may  be  mentioned 
"  La  Dot  de  Suzette  "  (1798)  and  "  Le  Calife  de 
Bagdad  "  (1800).  The  latter  of  these  was  remark- 
ably popular,  and  drew  from  the  severe  Cherubim 
the  following  rebuke  :  "  Malheureux  !  Are  you  not 
ashamed  of  such  undeserved  triumph?"  Boiel- 
dieu  took  the  brusque  criticism  meekly  and  pre- 
ferred a  request  for  further  instruction  from  Che- 
rubini — a  proof  of  modesty  and  good  sense  quite 
remarkable  in  one  who  had  attained  recognition 
as  a  favorite  with  the  musical  public.  Boieldieu's 
three  years'  studies  under  the  great  Italian  master 
were  of  much  service,  for  his  next  work, "  Ma  Tante 
Aurore,"  produced  in  1803,  showed  noticeable  ar- 
tistic progress. 

It  was  during  this  year  that  Bo'ieldieu,  goaded 
by  domestic  misery  (for  he  had  married  the  dan- 


BOlELDIEU   AND   ACBER.  197 

seuse  Clotilde  Mafleuray,  whose  notorious  infidelity 
made  his  name  a  byword),  exiled  himself  to  Russia, 
even  then  looked  on  as  an  El  Dorado  for  the  mu- 
sician, where  he  spent  eight  years  as  conductor  and 
composer  of  the  Imperial  Opera.  This  was  all  but 
a  total  eclipse  in  his  art-life,  for  he  did  little  of  note 
during  the  period  of  his  St.  Petersburg  career. 

He  returned  to  Paris  in  1811,  where  he  found 
great  changes.  Me'hul  and  Cherubini,  disgusted 
with  the  public,  kept  an  obstinate  silence  ;  and 
Nicolo  was  not  a  dangerous  rival.  He  set  to  work 
with  fresh  zeal,  and  one  of  his  most  charming 
works,  "Jean  de  Paris,"  produced  in  1812,  was 
received  with  a  storm  of  delight.  This  and  "  La 
Dame  Blanche "  are  the  two  masterpieces  of  the 
composer  in  refined  humor,  masterly  delineation, 
and  sustained  power  both  of  melody  and  construc- 
tion. The  fourteen  years  which  elapsed  before 
Boieldieu's  genius  took  a  still  higher  flight  were 
occupied  in  writing  works  of  little  value  except 
as  names  in  a  catalogue.  The  long-expected  opera 
"  La  Dame  Blanche  "  saw  the  light  in  1825,  and 
it  is  to-day  a  stock  opera  in  Europe,  one  Parisian 
theatre  alone  having  given  it  nearly  2,000  times. 
Boieldieu's  latter  years  were  uneventful  and  un 
fruitful.  He  died  in  1834  of  pulmonary  disease,  the 
germs  of  which  wrere  planted  by  St.  Petersburg 
winters.  "  Jean  de  Paris  "  and  "  La  Dame  Blanche  " 
are  the  two  works,  out  of  nearly  thirty  operas, 
which  the  world  cherishes  as  masterpieces. 


198  GREAT  ITALIAN  AND  FRENCH  COMPOSERS. 


II. 

DANIEL  FRANCOIS  ESPRIT  AUBER  was  born  at 
Caen,  Normandy,  January  29,  1784.  He  was  des- 
tined by  his  parents  for  a  mercantile  career,  and 
was  articled  to  a  French  firm  in  London  to  perfect 
himself  in  commercial  training.  As  a  child  he 
showed  his  passion  and  genius  for  music,  a  fact  so 
noticeable  in  the  lives  of  most  of  the  great  musi- 
cians. He  composed  ballads  and  romances  at  the 
age  of  eleven,  and  during  his  London  life  was 
much  sought  after  as  a  musical  prodigy  alike  in 
composition  and  execution.  In  consequence  of 
the  breach  of  the  treaty  of  Amiens  in  1804,  he 
was  obliged  to  return  to  Paris,  and  we  hear  no 
more  of  the  counting-room  as  a  part  of  his  life. 
His  resetting  of  an  old  libretto  in  1811  attracted 
the  attention  of  Cherubini,  who  impressed  himself 
so  powerfully  on  French  music  and  musicians,  and 
the  master  offered  to  superintend  his  further  stud- 
ies, a  chance  eagerly  seized  by  Auber.  To  the  in- 
struction of  Cherubini  Auber  owed  his  mastery 
over  the  technical  difficulties  of  his  art.  Among 
the  pieces  written  at  this  time  was  a  mass  for  the 
Prince  of  Chimay,  of  which  the  prayer  was  after- 
ward transferred  to  "  Masaniello."  The  comic 
opera  "Le  S6jour  Militaire,"  produced  in  1813, 
when  Auber  was  thirty,  was  really  his  debut  as  a 
composer.  It  was  coldly  received,  and  it  was  not 
till  the  loss  of  private  fortune  set  a  sharp  spur  to 


BOIELDIEU   AND   ATJBER.  199 

nis  creative  activity  that  he  set  himself  to  serious 
work.  "  La  Bergere  Chatelaine,"  produced  in 
1820,  was  his  first  genuine  success,  and  equal  for- 
tune attended  "  Emma  "  in  the  following  season. 

The  duration  and  climax  of  Auber's  musical 
career  were  founded  on  his  friendship  and  artistic 
alliance  with  Scribe,  one  of  the  most  fertile  libret- 
tists and  playwrights  of  modern  times.  To  this 
union,  which  lasted  till  Scribe's  death,  a  great 
number  of  operas,  comic  and  serious,  owe  their 
existence  :  not  all  of  equal  value,  but  all  evincing 
the  apparently  inexhaustible  productive  genius  of 
the  joint  authors.  The  works  on  which  Auber's 
claims  to  musical  greatness  rest  are  as  follows : 
"  Leicester,"  1822  ;  "  Le  Mayon,"  1825,  the  compos- 
er's chef-d'oeuvre  in  comic  opera  ;  "  La  Muette  de 
Portici,"  otherwise  "  Masaniello,"  1828  ;  "  Fra 
Diavolo,"  1830  ;  "  Lestocq,"  1835  ;  "  Le  Cheval 
de  Bronze,"  1835  ;  "  L'Ambassadrice,"  1836  ;  "  Le 
Domino  Noir,"  1837  ;  "Les  Diamants  de  la  Cou- 
ronne,"  1841  ;  "  Carlo  Braschi,"  1842  ;  "Haydee," 
1847;  "L'Enfant  Prodigue,"  1850;  "Zerline," 
1851,  written  for  Madame  Alboni  ;  "  Manon 
Lescaut,"  1856  ;  "  La  Fiancee  du  Roi  de  Garbe," 
1867  ;  "  Le  Premier  Jour  de  Bonheur,"  1868  ;  and 
"  Le  Reve  d' Amour,"  1869.  The  last  two  works 
were  composed  after  Auber  had  passed  his  eighti- 
eth year. 

The  indifference  of  this  Anacreon  of  music  to 
renown  is  worthy  of  remark.  He  never  attended 


200  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOS  KllS. 

the  performance  of  his  own  pieces,  and  disdained 
applause.  The  highest  and  most  valued  distinc- 
tions were  showered  on  him ;  orders,  jeweled 
swords,  diamond  snuffboxes,  were  poured  in  from 
all  the  courts  of  Europe.  Innumerable  invita- 
tions urged  him  to  visit  other  capitals,  and  receive 
honor  from  imperial  hands.  But  Auber  was  a 
true  Parisian,  and  could  not  be  induced  to  leave 
his  beloved  city.  He  was  a  Member  of  the  Insti- 
tute, Commander  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  and 
Cherubim's  successor  as  Director  of  the  Conserva- 
tory. He  enjoyed  perfect  health  up  to  the  day 
of  his  death  in  1871.  Assiduous  in  his  duties  at 
the  Conservatory,  and  active  in  his  social  rela- 
tions, which  took  him  into  the  most  brilliant  cir- 
cles of  an  extended  period,  covering  the  reigns  of 
Napoleon  I.,  Charles  X.,  Louis  Philippe,  and  Na- 
poleon III.,  he  yet  always  found  time  to  devote 
several  hours  a  day  to  composition.  Auber  was  a 
small,  delicate  man,  yet  distinguished  in  appear- 
ance, and  noted  for  wit.  His  bons  mots  were  cele- 
brated. While  directing  a  musical  soiree  when 
over  eighty,  a  gentleman  having  taken  a  white 
hair  from  his  shoulder,  he  said  laughingly,  "  This 
hair  must  belong  to  some  old  fellow  who  passed 
near  me." 

A  good  anecdote  is  told  d  propos  of  an  inter- 
view of  Auber  with  Charles  X.  in  1830.  "  Ma- 
saniello,"  a  bold  and  revolutionary  work,  had  just 
been  produced,  and  stirred  up  a  powerful  popular 


BOlELDHU   AND   AUBER.  201 

ferment.  "  Ah,  M.  Auber,"  said  the  King,  "  you 
have  no  idea  of  the  good  your  work  has  done  me." 
"  How,  sire  ?  "  "  All  revolutions  resemble  each 
other.  To  sing  one  is  to  provoke  one.  What  can 
I  do  to  please  you  ?  "  "  Ah,  sire  !  I  am  not  am- 
bitious." "I  am  disposed  to  name  you  director  of 
the  court  concerts.  Be  sure  that  I  shall  remem- 
ber 'you.  But,"  added  he,  taking  the  artist's 
arm  with  a  cordial  and  confidential  air,  "from 
this  day  forth  you  understand  me  well,  M.  Auber, 
I  expect  you  to  bring  out  the  '  Muette '  but  very 
seldom"  It  is  well  known  that  the  Brussels  riots 
of  1830,  which  resulted  in  driving  the  Dutch  out 
of  the  country,  occurred  immediately  after  a  per- 
formance of  this  opera,  which  thus  acted  the  part 
of  "  Lillibulero  "  in  English  political  annals.  It 
is  a  striking  coincidence  that  the  death  of  the  au- 
thor of  this  revolutionary  inspiration,  May  13, 
1871,  was  partly  caused  by  the  terrors  of  the  Paris 
Commune. 

in. 

BOIELDIEU  and  Auber  are  by  far  the  most 
brilliant  representatives  of  the  French  school  of 
Opera  Comique.  The  work  of  the  former  which 
shows  his  genius  at  its  best  is  "  La  Dame  Blanche." 
It  possesses  in  a  remarkable  degree  dramatic  verve, 
piquancy  of  rhythm,  and  beauty  of  structure. 
Mr.  Franz  Hueffer  speaks  of  this  opera  as  follows  : 

"Peculiar  to   Boieldieu   is  a  certain   homely 


202  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

sweetness  of  melody  which  proves  its  kinship  to 
that  source  of  all  truly  national  music,  the  popu- 
lar song.  The  'Dame  Blanche'  might  be  con- 
sidered as  the  artistic  continuation  of  the  chanson, 
in  the  same  sense  as  Weber's  '  Der  Freischtitz ' 
has  been  called  a  dramatized  Volkslied.  With 
regard  to  Boieldieu's  work,  this  remark  indicates 
at  the  same  time  a  strong  development  of  what 
has  been  described  as  the  '  amalgamating  force  of 
French  art  and  culture '  ;  for  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  subject  treated  is  Scotch.  The 
plot  is  a  compound  of  two  of  Scott's  novels  : 
the  '  Monastery '  and  '  Guy  Mannering.'  Julian, 
alias  George  Brown,  comes  to  his  paternal  castle 
unknown  to  himself.  He  hears  the  .songs  of  his 
childhood,  which  awaken  old  memories  in  him  ; 
but  he  seems  doomed  to  misery  and  disappoint- 
ment, for  on  the  day  of  his  return  his  hall  and  his 
broad  acres  are  to  become  the  property  of  a  vil- 
lain, the  unfaithful  steward  of  his  own  family. 
Here  is  a  situation  full  of  gloom  and  sad  foreboding. 
But  Scribe  and  Boi'eldieu  knew  better.  Their  hero 
is  a  dashing  cavalry  officer,  who  makes  love  to 
every  pretty  woman  he  comes  across,  the  '  White 
Lady  of  Avenel '  among  the  number.  Yet  no  one 
who  has  witnessed  the  impersonation  of  George 
Brown  by  the  great  Roger  can  have  failed  to  be 
impressed  with  the  grace  and  noble  gallantry  of 
the  character." 

The   tune  of  "Robin  Adair,"  introduced  by 


BOIELDIEU   AND    AUBER.  203 

Boleldieu  and  described  as  "  le  cbant  ordinaire  de 
la  tribu  d'Avenel,"  would  hardly  be  recognized  by 
a  genuine  Scotchman  ;  but  what  it  loses  in  homely 
vigor  it  has  gained  in  sweetness.  The  musician's 
taste  is  always  gratified  in  Boi'eldieu's  two  great 
comic  operas  by  the  grace  and  finish  of  the  instru- 
mentation, and  the  carefully  composed  ensembles, 
while  the  public  is  delighted  with  the  charming  bal- 
lads and  songs.  The  airs  of  "  La  Dame  Blanche  " 
are  more  popular  in  classic  Germany  than  those 
of  any  other  opera.  Boieldieu  njay  then  be  char- 
acterized as  the  composer  who  carried  the  French 
operetta  to  its  highest  development,  and  endowed 
it  in  the  fullest  sense  with  all  the  grace,  sparkle, 
dramatic  symmetry,  and  gamesome  touch  so  es- 
sentially the  heritage  of  the  nation. 

Auber's  position  in  art  may  be  defined  as  that 
of  the  last  great  representative  of  French  comic 
opera,  the  legitimate  successor  of  Boieldieu,  whom 
he  surpasses  in  refinement  and  brilliancy  of  indi- 
vidual effects,  while  he  is  inferior  in  simplicity, 
breadth,  and  that  firm  grasp  of  details  which  en- 
ables the  composer  to  blend  all  the  parts  into  a 
perfect  whole.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  "  La 
Muette,"  Auber's  greatest  opera,  is  a  romantic 
and  serious  work,  full  of  bold  strokes  of  genius 
that  astonish  no  less  than  they  please,  he  must  be 
held  to  be  essentially  a  master  in  the  field  of  oper- 
atic comedy.  In  the  great  opera  to  which  allu- 
sion has  been  made  the  passions  of  excited  public 


204  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

feeling  have  their  fullest  sway,  and  heroic  senti- 
ments of  love  and  devotion  are  expressed  in  a 
manner  alike  grand  and  original.  The  traditional 
forms  of  the  opera  are  made  to  expand  with  the 
force  of  the  feeling  bursting  through  them.  But 
this  was  the  sole  flight  of  Auber  into  the  higher 
regions  of  his  art,  the  offspring  of  the  thoroughly 
revolutionized  feeling  of  the  time  (1828),  which 
within  two  years  shook  Europe  with  such  force. 
Aside  from  this  outcome  of  his  Berserker  mood, 
Auber  is  a  charming  exponent  of  the  grace, 
brightness,  and  piquancy  of  French  society  and 
civilization.  If  rarely  deep,  he  is  never  dull,  and 
no  composer  has  given  the  world  more  elegant 
and  graceful  melodies  of  the  kind  which  charm 
the  drawing-room  and  furnish  a  good  excuse  for 
young-lady  pianism. 

The  following  sprightly  and  judicious  estimate 
of  Auber  by  one  of  the  ablest  of  modern  critics, 
Henry  Chorley,  in  the  main  fixes  him  in  his  right 
place  : 

"  He  falls  short  of  his  mark  in  situations  of 
profound  pathos  (save  perhaps  in  the  sleep-song 
of  'Masaniello').  He  is  greatly  behind  his  Ital- 
ian brethren  in  those  mad  scenes  which  they  so 
largely  affect.  He  is  always  light  and  piquant  for 
voices,  delicious  in  his  treatment  of  the  orchestra, 
and  at  this  moment  of  writing — though  I  believe 
the  patriarch  of  opera-writers  (born,  it  is  said,  in 
1784),  having  begun  to  compose  at  an  age  when 


GIACOMO   MEYERBEER. 


MEYERBEER.  205 

other  men  have  died  exhausted  by  precocious  la- 
bor—  is  perhaps  the  lightest-hearted,  lightest- 
handed  man  still  pouring  out  fragments  of  pearl 
and  spangles  of  pure  gold  on  the  stage.  .  .  .  With 
all  this  it  is  remarkable  as  it  is  unfair,  that  among 
musicians — when  talk  is  going  around,  and  this 
person  praises  that  portentous  piece  of  counter- 
point, and  the  other  analyzes  some  new  chord  the 
ugliness  of  which  has  led  to  its  being  neglected 
by  former  composers — the  name  of  this  brilliant 
man  is  hardly  if  ever  heard  at  all.  His  is  the  next 
name  among  the  composers  belonging  to  the  last 
thirty  years  which  should  be  heard  after  that  of 
Rossini,  the  number  and  extent  of  the  works  pro- 
duced by  him  taken  into  account,  and  with  these 
the  beauties  which  they  contain." 


MEYERBEER. 


FEW  great  names  in  art  have  been  the  occa- 
sion of  such  diversity  of  judgment  as  Giacomo 
Meyerbeer,  whose  works  fill  so  large  a  place  in 
French  music.  By  one  school  of  critics  he  is 
lauded  beyond  all  measure  as  one  "  whose  scien- 
tific skill  and  gorgeous  orchestration  are  only 
equaled  by  his  richness  of  melody  and  genius  for 

dramatic  and  scenic  effects  ;  by  far  the  greatest 
14 


206  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

composer  of  recent  years"  ;  by  another  class  we 
hear  him  stigmatized  as  "  the  very  caricature  of 
the  universal  Mozart  .  .  .  the  Cosmopolitan  Jew, 
who  hawks  his  wares  among  all  nations  indiffer- 
ently, and  does  his  best  to  please  customers  of 
every  kind."  The  truth  lies  between  the  two,  as 
is  wont  to  be  the  case  in  such  extremes  of  opinion. 
Meyerbeer's  remarkable  talent  so  nearly  approach- 
es genius  as  to  make  the  distinction  a  difficult  one. 
He  can  not  be  numbered  among  those  great  crea- 
tive artists  who  by  force  of  individuality  have 
molded  musical  epochs  and  left  an  undying  im- 
print on  their  own  and  succeeding  ages.  On  the 
other  hand,  his  remarkable  power  of  combining 
the  resources  of  the  lyric  stage  in  a  grand  mosaic 
of  all  that  can  charm  the  eye  and  ear,  of  wed- 
ding rich  and  gorgeous  music  with  splendid  spec- 
tacle, gives  him  a  unique  place  in  music  ;  for,  un- 
like Wagner,  whose  ideas  of  stage  necessities  are 
no  less  exacting,  Meyerbeer  aims  at  no  reforms  in 
lyric  music,  but  only  to  develop  the  old  forms  to 
their  highest  degree  of  effect,  under  conditions 
that  shall  gratify  the  general  artistic  sense.  To 
accomplish  this,  he  spares  no  means  either  in  or 
out  of  m  usic.  Though  a  German,  there  is  but  lit- 
tle of  the  Teutonic  genre  in  the  music  of  Weber's 
fellow  pupil.  When  at  the  outset  he  wrote  for 
Italy,  he  showed  but  little  of  that  easy  assump- 
tion of  the  genius  of  Italian  art  which  many  other 
foreign  composers  have  attained.  It  was  not  till 


MEYERBEER.  207 

he  formed  his  celebrated  art  partnership  with 
Scribe,  the  greatest  of  librettists,  and  succeeded 
in  opening  the  gates  of  the  Grand  Opera  of  Paris 
with  all  its  resources,  more  vast  than  exist  any- 
where else,  that  Meyerbeer  found  his  true  voca- 
tion, the  production  of  elaborate  dramas  in  music 
of  the  eclectic  school.  He  inaugurated  no  clear- 
ly defined  tendencies  in  his  art  ;  he  distinctively 
belongs  to  no  national  school  of  music  ;  but  his 
;ong  and  important  connection  with  the  French 
lyric  stage  classifies  him  unmistakably  with  the 
composers  of  this  nation. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  belonged  to  a  fam- 
ily of  marked  ability.  Jacob  Beer  was  a  ribh 
Jewish  banker  of  Berlin,  highly  honored  for  his  ro- 
bust intellect  and  scholarly  culture  as  well  as  his 
wealth.  William,  one  of  the  sons,  became  a  dis- 
tinguished astronomer;  another,  Michael,  achieved 
distinction  as  a  dramatic  poet  ;  while  the  eldest, 
Jacob,  was  the  composer,  who  gained  his  renown 
Binder  the  Italianized  name  of  Giacomo  Meyer- 
-•t-t-r,  a  part  of  the  surname  having  been  adopted 
from  that  of  the  rich  banker  Meyer,  who  left  the 
musician  a  great  fortune. 

Meyerbeer  was  born  at  Berlin,  September  5, 
1794,  and  was  a  musical  prodigy  from  his  earliest 
years.  When  only  four  years  old  he  would  re- 
peat on  the  piano  the  airs  he  heard  from  the  hand- 
organs,  composing  his  own  accompaniment.  At 
five  he  took  lessons  of  Lanska,  a  pupil  of  Clementi, 


208  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

and  at  six  he  made  his  appearance  at  a  concert. 
Three  years  afterward  the  critics  spoke  of  him  as 
one  of  the  best  pianists  in  Berlin.  He  studied 
successively  under  the  greatest  masters  of  the 
time,  dementi,  Bernhard  Anselm  Weber,  and 
Abbe  Vogler.  While  in  the  latter's  school  at 
Darmstadt,  he  had  for  fellow  pupils  Carl  von 
Weber,  Winter,  and  Gansbacher.  Every  morn- 
ing the  abbe  called  together  his  pupils  after 
mass,  gave  them  some  theoretical  instruction, 
then  assigned  each  one  a  theme  for  composition. 
There  was  great  emulation  and  friendship  be- 
tween Meyerbeer  and  Weber,  which  afterward 
cooled,  however,  owing  to  Weber's  disgust  at 
Meyerbeer's  lavish  catering  to  an  extravagant 
taste.  Weber's  severe  and  bitter  criticisms  were 
not  forgiven  by  the  Franco-German  composer. 

Meyerbeer's  first  work  was  the  oratorio  "  Gott 
und  die  Natur,"  which  was  performed  before  the 
Grand  Duke  with  such  success  as  to  gain  for  him 
the  appointment  of  court  composer.  Meyerbeer's 
concerts  at  Darmstadt  and  Berlin  were  brilliant 
exhibitions  ;  and  Moscheles,  no  mean  judge,  has 
told  us  that  if  Meyerbeer  had  devoted  himself  to 
the  piano,  no  performer  in  Europe  could  have  sur- 
passed him.  By  advice  of  Salieri,  whom  Meyer- 
beer met  in  Vienna,  he  proceeded  to  Italy  to 
study  the  cultivation  of  the  voice  ;  for  he  seems 
in  early  life  to  have  clearly  recognized  how  neces- 
sary it  is  for  the  operatic  composer  to  understand 


MEYERBEER.  209 

this,  though,  in  after-years,  he  treated  the  voice 
as  ruthlessly  in  many  of  his  most  important  arias 
and  scenas  as  he  would  a  brass  instrument.  He 
arrived  in  Vienna  just  as  the  Rossini  madness  was 
at  its  height,  and  his  own  blood  was  fired  to  com- 
pose operas  d  la  Rossini  for  the  Italian  theatres. 
So  he  proceeded  with  prodigious  industry  to  turn 
out  operas.  In  1818  he  wrote  "  Romilda  e  Cos- 
tanza"  for  Padua;  in  1819,  "  Semiramide "  for 
Turin  ;  in  1820,  "  Emma  di  Resburgo  "  for  Ven- 
ice ;  in  1822,  "  Margherita  d'Anjou  "  for  Milan  ; 
and  in  1823,  "  L'Esule  di  Granata,"  also  for  Mi- 
lan. These  works  of  the  composer's  'prentice 
hand  met  with  the  usual  fate  of  the  production 
of  the  thousand  and  one  musicians  who  pour 
forth  operas  in  unremitting  flow  for  the  Italian 
theatres  ;  but  they  were  excellent  drill  for  the 
future  author  of  "  Robert  le  Diable "  and  "  Les 
Huguenots."  On  returning  to  Germany  Meyer- 
beer was  very  sarcastically  criticised  on  the  one 
side  as  a  fugitive  from  the  ranks  of  German 
music,  on  the  other  as  an  imitator  of  Rossini. 

Meyerbeer  returned  to  Venice,  and  in  1824 
brought  out  "  II  Crociato  in  Egitto  "  in  that  city, 
an  opera  which  made  the  tour  of  Europe,  and 
established  a  reputation  for  the  author  as  the 
coming  rival  of  Rossini,  no  one  suspecting  from 
what  Meyerbeer  had  then  accomplished  that  he 
was  about  to  strike  boldly  out  in  a  new  direction. 
"  II  Crociato "  was  produced  in  Paris  in  1825, 


210  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

and  the  same  year  in  London.  In  the  latter  city, 
Veluti,  the  last  of  the  male  sopranists,  was  one 
of  the  principal  singers  in  the  opera  ;  and  it  was 
said  by  some  of  the  ill-natured  critics  that  curi- 
osity to  see  and  hear  this  singer  of  a  peculiar 
kind,  of  whom  it  was  said,  "  Non  vir  sed  Veluti," 
had  as  much  to  do  with  the  success  of  the  opera 
as  its  merits.  Lord  Mount  Edgcumbe,  however, 
an  excellent  critic,  wrote  of  it  "  as  quite  of  the 
new  school,  but  not  copied  from  its  founder, 
Rossini  ;  original,  odd,  flighty,  and  it  might  be 
termed  fantastic,  but  at  times  beautiful.  Here 
and  there  most  delightful  melodies  and  harmonies 
occurred,  but  it  was  unequal,  solos  being  as  rare 
as  in  all  the  modern  operas."  This  was  the  last 
of  Meyerbeer's  operas  written  in  the  Italian  style. 
In  1827  the  composer  married,  and  for  several 
years  lived  a  quiet,  secluded  life.  The  loss  of  his 
first  two  children  so  saddened  him  as  to  concen- 
trate his  attention  for  a  while  on  church  music. 
During  this  period  he  composed  only  a  "  Stabat," 
a  "  Miserere,"  a  "  Te  Deum,"  and  eight  of  Klop- 
stock's  songs.  But  he  was  preparing  for  that  new 
departure  on  which  his  reputation  as  a  great  com- 
poser now  rests,  and  which  called  forth  such  bitter 
condemnation  on  the  one  hand,  such  thunders  of 
eulogy  on  the  other.  His  old  fellow  pupil,  We- 
ber, wrote  of  him  in  after-years  :  "  He  prostituted 
his  profound,  admirable,  and  serious  German  tal- 
ent for  the  applause  of  the  crowd  which  he  ought 


MEYERBEER.  211 

to  have  despised."  And  Mendelssohn  wrote  to 
his  father  in  words  of  still  more  angry  disgust : 
"  When  in  '  Robert  le  Diable '  nuns  appear  one 
after  the  other  and  endeavor  to  seduce  the  hero, 
till  at  length  the  lady  abbess  succeeds  ;  when  the 
hero,  aided  by  a  magic  branch,  gains  access  to 
the  sleeping  apartment  of  his  lady,  and  throws 
her  down,  forming  a  tableau  which  is  applauded 
here,  and  will  perhaps  be  applauded  in  Germany  ; 
and  when,  after  that,  she  implores  for  mercy  in 
an  aria  ;  when,  in  another  opera,  a  girl  undresses 
herself,  singing  all  the  while  that  she  will  be  mar- 
ried to-morrow,  it  may  be  effective,  but  I  find  no 
music  in  it.  For  it  is  vulgar,  and  if  such  is  the 
taste  of  the  day,  and  therefore  necessary,  I  prefer 
writing  sacred  music." 

n. 

"  ROBERT  LE  DIABLE  "  was  produced  at  the 
Academic  Royale  in  1831,  and  inaugurated  the 
brilliant  reign  of  Dr.  Veron  as  manager.  The 
bold  innovations,  the  powerful  situations,  the 
daring  methods  of  the  composer,  astonished  and 
delighted  Paris,  and  the  work  was  performed 
more  than  a  hundred  consecutive  times.  The 
history  of  "  Robert  le  Diable "  is  in  some  re- 
spects curious.  It  was  originally  written  for  the 
Ventadour  Theatre,  devoted  to  comic  opera  ;  but 
the  company  were  found  unable  to  sing  the  diffi- 


212  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FftENCH   COMPOSERS. 

cult  music.  Meyerbeer  was  inspired  by  Weber's 
"  Der  Freischtltz "  to  attempt  a  romantic,  semi- 
fantastic  legendary  opera,  and  trod  very  closely 
in  the  footsteps  of  his  model.  It  was  determined 
to  so  alter  the  libretto  and  extend  and  elaborate 
the  music  as  to  fit  it  for  the  stage  of  the  Grand 
Opera.  MM.  Scribe  and  Delavigne,  the  libret- 
tists, and  Meyerbeer,  devoted  busy  days  and 
nights  to  hurrying  on  the  work.  The  whole  opera 
was  remodeled,  recitative  substituted  for  dialogue, 
and  one  of  the  most  important  characters,  JRaim- 
baud,  cut  out  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  acts — a  sup- 
pression which  is  claimed  to  have  befogged  a 
very  clear  and  intelligible  plot.  Highly  sugges- 
tive in  its  present  state  of  Weber's  opera,  the 
opera  of  "  Robert  le  Diable  "  is  said  to  have  been 
marvelously  similar  to  "  Der  Freischtltz  "  in  the 
original  form,  though  inferior  in  dignity  of  mo- 
tive. 

Paris  was  all  agog  with  interest  at  the  first 
production.  The  critics  had  attended  the  rehear- 
sals, and  it  was  understood  that  the  libretto,  the 
music,  and  the  ballet  were  full  of  striking  inter- 
est. Nourrit  played  the  part  of  Robert ;  Levas- 
seur,  Bertram  /  Mme.  Cinti  Damoreau,  Isabelle  / 
and  Mile.  Dorus,  Alice.  The  greatest  dancers  of 
the  age  were  in  the  ballet  and  the  brilliant  Tagli- 
oni  led  the  band  of  resuscitated  nuns.  Habeneck 
was  conductor,  and  everything  had  been  done  in 
the  way  of  scenery  and  costumes.  The  success 


MEYERBEER.  213 

was  a  remarkable  one,  and  Meyerbeer's  name  be- 
came famous  throughout  Europe. 

Dr.  Veron,  in  his  "Memoires  d'un  Bourgeoif 
de  Paris,"  describes  a  thrilling  yet  ludicrous  ac- 
cident that  occurred  on  the  first  night's  perform- 
ance. After  the  admirable  trio,  which  is  the 
denodment  of  the  work,  Levasseur,  who  person- 
ated Bertram,  sprang  through  the  trap  to  rejoin 
the  kingdom  of  the  dead,  whence  he  came  so 
mysteriously.  Robert,  on  the  other  hand,  had  to 
remain  on  the  earth,  a  converted  man,  and  des- 
tined to  happiness  in  marriage  with  his  princess, 
Isabelle.  Nourrit,  the  Robert  of  the  performance, 
misled  by  the  situation  and  the  fervor  of  his  own 
feelings,  threw  himself  into  the  trap,  which  was 
not  properly  set.  Fortunately  the  mattresses  be- 
neath had  not  all  been  removed,  or  the  tenor 
would  have  been  killed,  a  doom  which  those  on 
the  stage  who  saw  the  accident  expected.  The 
audit-lire  supposed  it  was  part  of  the  opera,  and 
the  people  on  the  stage  were  full  of  terror  and 
lamentation,  when  Nourrit  appeared  to  calm  their 
fears.  Mile.  Dorus  burst  into  tears  of  joy,  and 
the  audience,  recognizing  the  situation,  broke  into 
shouts  of  applause. 

The  opera  was  brought  out  in  London  the  same 
year,  with  nearly  the  same  cast,  but  did  not  excite 
so  much  enthusiasm  as  in  Paris.  Lord  Mount 
Edgcumbe,  who  represented  the  connoisseurs  of 
the  old  school,  expressed  the  then  current  opinion 


214  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

of  London  audiences  :  "  Never  did  I  see  a  more 
disagreeable  or  disgusting  performance.  The 
sight  of  the  resurrection  of  a  whole  convent  of 
nuns,  who  rise  from  their  graves  and  begin  dan- 
cing  like  so  many  bacchantes,  is  revolting  ;  and  a 
sacred  service  in  a  church,  accompanied  by  an 
organ  on  the  stage,  not  very  decorous.  Neither 
does  the  music  of  Meyerbeer  compensate  for  a 
fable  which  is  a  tissue  of  nonsense  and  improba- 
bility." * 

M.  Veron  was  so  delighted  with  the  great  suc- 
cess of  "  Robert "  that  he  made  a  contract  with 
Meyerbeer  for  another  grand  opera,  "  Les  Hugue- 
nots," to  be  completed  by  a  certain  date.  Mean- 
while, the  failing  health  of  Mme.  Meyerbeer 
obliged  the  composer  to  go  to  Italy,  and  work  on 
the  opera  was  deferred,  thus  causing  him  to  lose 
thirty  thousand  francs  as  the  penalty  of  his  bro- 
ken contract.  At  length,  after  twenty-eight  re- 
hearsals, and  an  expense  of  more  than  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  thousand  francs  in  preparation, 
"  Les  Huguenots  "  was  given  to  the  public,  Feb- 
ruary 26,  1836.  Though  this  great  work  excited 
transports  of  enthusiasm  in  Paris,  it  was  inter- 
dicted in  many  of  the  cities  of  Southern  Europe 
on  account  of  the  subject  being  a  disagreeable 
one  to  ardent  and  bigoted  Catholics.  In  London 
it  has  always  been  the  most  popular  of  Meyer- 

*  Yet  Lord  Mount  Edgcumbe  is  inconsistent  enough  to  be 
an  ardent  admirer  of  Mozart's  "  Zauherflote." 


MEYERBEER.  215 

beer's  three  great  operas,  owing  perhaps  partly  to 
the  singing  of  Mario  and  Grisi,  and  more  lately 
of  Titiens  and  Giuglini. 

When  Spontini  resigned  his  place  as  chapel- 
master  at  the  Court  of  Berlin,  in  1832,  Meyerbeer 
succeeded  him.  He  wrote  much  music  of  an  ac- 
cidental character  in  his  new  position,  but  a  slum- 
ber seems  to  have  fallen  on  his  greater  creative 
faculties.  The  German  atmosphere  was  not  fa- 
vorable to  the  fruitfulness  of  Meyerbeer's  genius. 
He  seems  to  have  needed  the  volatile  and  spark- 
ling life  of  Paris  to  excite  him  into  full  activity. 
Or  perhaps  he  was  not  willing  to  produce  one  of 
his  operas,  with  their  large  dependence  on  elabo- 
rate splendor  of  production,  away  from  the  Paris 
Grand  Opera.  During  Meyerbeer's  stay  in  Berlin 
he  introduced  Jenny  Lind  to  the  Berlin  public,  as 
he  afterward  did  indeed  to  Paris,  her  debut  there 
being  made  in  the  opening  performance  of  "  Das 
Feldlager  in  Schlesien,"  afterward  remodeled  into 
"L'&oileduNord." 

Meyerbeer  returned  to  Paris  in  1849,  to  pre- 
sent the  third  of  his  great  operas,  "  Le  Prophete." 
It  was  given  with  Roger,  Viardot- Garcia,  and 
Castellan  in  the  principal  characters.  Mme.  Viar- 
dot-Garcia  achieved  one  of  her  greatest  dramatic 
triumphs  in  the  difficult  part  of  Fides.  In  Lon- 
don the  opera  also  met  with  splendid  success,  hav- 
ing, as  Chorley  tells  us,  a  great  advantage  over 
the  Paris  presentation  in  "  the  remarkable  person- 


216  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOHE11S. 

al  beauty  of  Signer  Mario,  whose  appearance  in 
his  coronation  robes  reminded  one  of  some  bishop- 
saint  in  a  picture  by  Van  Eyck  or  Dtirer,  and  who 
could  bring  to  bear  a  play  of  feature  without 
grimace  into  the  scene  of  false  fascination,  entire- 
ly beyond  the  reach  of  the  clever  French  artist 
Roger,  who  originated  the  character." 

"  L'lCtoile  du  Nord  "  was  given  to  the  public 
February  16,  1854.  Up  to  this  time  the  opera  of 
"Robert"  had  been  sung  three  hundred  and  thir- 
ty-three times,  "  Les  Huguenots "  two  hundred 
and  twenty-two,  and  "  Le  Prophcte  "  a  hundred 
and  twelve.  The  "  Pardon  de  Ploermel,"  also 
known  as  "  Dinorah,"  was  offered  to  the  world  of 
Paris  April  4,  1859.  Both  these  operas,  though 
beautiful,  are  inferior  to  his  other  works. 

in. 

MEYERBEEK,  a  man  of  handsome  private  for- 
tune, like  Mendelssohn,  made  large  sums  by  his 
operas,  and  was  probably  the  wealthiest  of  the 
great  composers.  He  lived  a  life  of  luxurious 
ease,  and  yet  labored  Avith  intense  zeal  a  certain 
number  of  hours  each  day.  A  friend  one  day 
begged  him  to  take  more  rest,  and  he  answered 
smilingly,  "  If  I  should  leave  work,  I  should  rob 
myself  of  my  greatest  pleasure  ;  for  I  am  so 
accustomed  to  work  that  it  has  become  a  neces- 
sity." Probably  few  composers  have  been  more 
splendidly  rewarded  by  contemporary  fame  and 


MEYERBEER.  217 

wealth,  or  been  more  idolized  by  their  admirers. 
No  less  may  it  be  said  that  few  have  been  the 
object  of  more  severe  criticism.  His  youth  was 
spent  amid  the  severest  classic  influences  of  Ger- 
man music,  and  the  spirit  of  romanticism  and  na- 
tionality, which  blossomed  into  such  beautiful  and 
characteristic  works  as  those  composed  by  his 
friend  and  fellow  pupil  Weber,  also  found  in  his 
heart  an  eloquent  echo.  But  Meyerbeer  resolutely 
disenthralled  himself  from  what  he  appeared  to 
have  regarded  as  trammels,  and  followed  out  an 
ambition  to  be  a  cosmopolitan  composer.  In  pur- 
suit of  this  purpose  he  divested  himself  of  that 
fine  flavor  of  individuality  and  devotion  to  art 
for  its  own  sake  which  marks  the  highest  labors 
of  genius.  He  can  not  be  exempted  from  the 
criticism  that  he  regarded  success  and  the  imme- 
diate plaudits  of  the  public  as  the  only  satisfac- 
tory rewards  of  his  art.  He  had  but  little  of  the 
lofty  content  which  shines  out  through  the  vexed 
and  clouded  lives  of  such  souls  as  Beethoven  and 
Gluck  in  music,  of  Bacon  and  Milton  in  literature, 
who  looked  forward  to  immortality  of  fame  as  the 
best  vindication  of  their  work.  A  marked  char- 
acteristic of  the  man  was  a  secret  dissatisfaction 
with  all  that  he  accomplished,  making  him  restless 
and  unhappy,  and  extremely  sensitive  to  criti- 
cism. With  this  was  united  a  tendency  at  times 
to  oscillate  to  the  other  extreme  of  vainglorious- 
ness.  An  example  of  this  was  a  reply  to  Rossini 


218  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

one  night  at  the  opera  when  they  were  listening 
to  "  Robert  le  Diable."  The  "Swan  of  Pesaro" 
was  a  warm  admirer  of  Meyerbeer,  though  the 
latter  was  a  formidable  rival,  and  his  works  had 
largely  replaced  those  of  the  other  in  popular  re- 
pute. Sitting  together  in  the  same  box,  Rossini, 
in  his  delight  at  one  portion  of  the  opera,  cried 
out  in  his  impulsive  Italian  way,  "If  you  can 
write  anything  to  surpass  this,  I  will  undertake  to 
dance  upon  my  head."  "  Well,  then,"  said  Mey- 
erbeer, "  you  had  better  soon  commence  practicing, 
for  I  have  just  commenced  the  fourth  act  of  '  Les 
Huguenots.' "  Well  might  he  make  this  boast,  for 
into  the  fourth  act  of  his  musical  setting  of  the 
terrible  St.  Bartholomew  tragedy  he  put  the  finest 
inspirations  of  his  life. 

Singular  to  say,  though  he  himself  represented 
the  very  opposite  pole  of  art  spirit  and  method, 
Mozart  was  to  him  the  greatest  of  his  predecessors. 
Perhaps  it  was  this  very  fact,  however,  which  was 
at  the  root  of  his  sentiment  of  admiration  for  the 
composer  of  "  Don  Giovanni  "  and  "  Le  Nozze  di 
Figaro."  A  story  is  told  to  the  effect  that  Mey- 
erbeer was  once  dining  with  some  friends,  when 
a  discussion  arose  respecting  Mozart's  position  in 
the  musical  hierarchy.  Suddenly  one  of  the  guests 
suggested  that  "  certain  beauties  of  Mozart's  mu- 
sic had  become  stale  with  age.  I  defy  you," 
he  continued,  "  to  listen  to  '  Don  Giovanni '  after 
the  fourth  act  of  the  '  Huguenots.'  "'  "  So  much 


MEYERBEER.  219 

the  worse,  then,  for  the  fourth  act  of  the  '  Hugue- 
nots,' "  said  Meyerbeer,  furious  at  the  clumsy  com- 
pliment paid  to  his  own  work  at  the  expense  of 
his  idol. 

Critics  wedded  to  the  strict  German  school  of 
music  never  forgave  Meyerbeer  for  his  dereliction 
from  the  spirit  and  influences  of  his  nation,  and 
the  prominence  which  he  gave  to  melodramatic 
effects  and  spectacular  show  in  his  operas.  Not 
without  some  show  of  reason,  they  cite  this  fact 
as  proof  of  poverty  of  musical  invention.  Men- 
delssohn, who  was  habitually  generous  in  his  judg- 
ment, wrote  to  the  poet  Immermann  from  Paris 
of  "  Robert  le  Diable  "  :  "  The  subject  is  of  the 
romantic  order ;  i.  e.,  the  devil  appears  in  it 
(which  suffices  the  Parisians  for  romance  and  im- 
agination). Nevertheless,  it  is  very  bad,  and, 
were  it  not  for  two  brilliant  seduction  scenes, 
there  would  not  even  be  effect.  .  .  .  The  opera 
does  not  please  me  ;  it  is  devoid  of  sentiment  and 
feeling.  .  .  .  People  admire  the  music,  but  where 
there  is  no  warmth  and  truth,  I  can  not  even  form 
a  standard  of  criticism." 

Schluter,  the  historian  of  music,  speaks  even 
more  bitterly  of  Meyerbeer's  irreverence  and  the- 
atric sensationalism  :  " '  Les  Huguenots  '  and  the 
far  weaker  production  4Le  Prophete'  are,  we 
think,  all  the  more  reprehensible  (nowadays  es- 
pecially, when  too  much  stress  is  laid  on  the  sub- 
ject of  a  work,  and  consequently  on  the  libretto 


220  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

of  an  opera),  because  the  Jew  has  in  these  pieces 
ruthlessly  dragged  before  the  footlights  two  of 
the  darkest  pictures  in  the  annals  of  Catholicism, 
nor  has  he  scrupled  to  bring  high  mass  and  cho- 
rale on  the  boards." 

Wagner,  the  last  of  the  great  German  com- 
posers, can  not  find  words  too  scathing  and  bitter 
to  mark  his  condemnation  of  Meyerbeer.  Per- 
haps his  extreme  aversion  finds  its  psychological 
reason  in  the  circumstance  that  his  own  early  ef- 
forts were  in  the  sphere  of  Meyerbeer  and  Hale- 
vy,  and  from  his  present  point  of  view  he  looks 
back  with  disgust  on  what  he  regards  as  the  sins 
of  his  youth.  The  fairest  of  the  German  esti- 
mates of  the  composer,  who  not  only  cast  aside 
the  national  spirit  and  methods,  but  offended  his 
countrymen  by  devoting  himself  to  the  French 
stage,  is  that  of  Vischer,  an  eminent  writer  on 
aesthetics  :  "  Notwithstanding  the  composer's  re- 
markable talent  for  musical  drama,  his  operas 
contain  sometimes  too  much,  sometimes  too  little 
— too  much  in  the  subject-matter,  external  adorn- 
ment, and  effective  '  situations ' — too  little  in  the 
absence  of  poetry,  ideality,  and  sentiment  (which 
are  essential  to  a  work  of  art),  as  well  as  in  the 
unnatural  and  constrained  combinations  of  the 
plot." 

But  despite  the  fact  that  Meyerbeer's  operas 
contain  such  strange  scenes  as  phantom  nuns  dan- 
cing, girls  bathing,  sunrise,  skating,  gunpowder 


MEYERBEER.  221 

explosions,  a  king  playing  the  flute,  and  the  prima 
donna  leading  a  goat,  dramatic  music  owes  to  him 
new  accents  of  genuine  pathos  and  an  addition  to 
its  resources  of  rendering  passionate  emotions. 
Through  much  that  is  merely  showy  and  mere- 
tricious there  come  frequent  bursts  of  genuine 
musical  power  and  energy,  which  give  him  a  high 
and  unmistakable  rank,  though  he  has  had  less 
permanent  influence  in  molding  and  directing  the 
development  of  musical  art  than  any  other  com- 
poser who  has  had  so  large  a  place  in  the  annals 
of  his  time. 

The  last  twelve  years  of  Meyerbeer's  life  were 
spent,  with  the  exception  of  brief  residences  in 
Germany  and  Italy,  in  Paris,  the  city  of  his  adop- 
tion, where  all  who  were  distinguished  in  art 
and  letters  paid  their  court  to  him.  When  he 
was  seized  with  his  fatal  illness  he  was  hard  at 
work  on  "  L'Africaine,"  for  which  Scribe  had  also 
furnished  the  libretto.  His  heart  was  set  on  its 
completion,  and  his  daily  prayer  was  that  his  life 
might  be  spared  to  finish  it.  But  it  was  not  to 
be.  He  died  May  2,  1864.  The  same  morning 
Rossini  called  to  inquire  after  the  health  of  the 
sick  man,  equally  his  friend  and  rival.  When  he 
heard  the  sad  news  he  sank  into  a  fit  of  pro- 
found despondency  and  grief,  from  which  he  did 
not  soon  recover.  All  Paris  mourned  with  him, 
and  even  Germany  forgot  its  critical  dislike  to 
join  in  regret  at  the  loss  of  one  who,  with  all 
15 


222  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

his  defects,  was  so  great  an  artist  and  so  good 
a  man. 

Meyerbeer  seems  to  have  been  greatly  afraid 
of  being  buried  alive.  In  his  pocketbook  after 
his  death  was  found  a  paper  giving  directions  that 
small  bells  should  be  attached  to  his  hands  and 
feet,  and  that  his  body  should  be  carefully  watched 
for  four  days,  after  which  it  should  be  sent  to 
Berlin  to  be  interred  by  the  side  of  his  mother,  to 
whom  he  had  been  most  tenderly  attached. 

The  composer  was  the  intimate  friend  of  most 
of  the  celebrities  of  his  time  in  art  and  literature. 
Victor  Hugo,  Lamartine,  George  Sand,  Balzac, 
Alfred  de  Musset,  Delacroix,  Jules  Janin,  and 
Theophile  Gautier  were  his  familiar  intimates  ; 
and  the  reunions  between  these  and  other  gifted 
men,  who  then  made  Paris  so  intellectually  bril- 
liant, are  charmingly  described  by  Liszt  and  Mo- 
scheles.  Meyerbeer's  correspondence,  which  was 
extensive,  deserves  publication,  as  it  displays 
marked  literary  faculty,  and  is  full  of  bright 
sympathetic  thought,  vigorous  criticism,  and  play- 
ful fancy.  The  following  letter  to  Jules  Janin, 
written  from  Berlin  a  few  years  before  his  death, 
gives  some  pleasant  insight  into  his  character  : 

Yonr  last  letter  was  addressed  to  me  at  Konigsberg; 
but  I  was  in  Berlin  working — working  away  like  a  young 
man,  despite  my  seventy  years,  which  somehow  certain 
people,  with  a  peculiar  generosity,  try  to  put  upon  me. 
As  I  am  not  at  Konigsberg,  where  I  am  to  arrange  for 


MEYERBEER.  223 

the  Court  concert  for  the  eighteenth  of  this  month,  1 
have  now  leisure  to  answer  your  letter,  and  will  imme- 
diately confess  to  you  how  greatly  I  was  disappointed 
that  you  were  so  little  interested  in  Rameau ;  and  yet 
Rameau  was  always  the  hright  star  of  your  French  opera, 
as  well  as  your  master  in  the  music.  He  remained  to 
you  after  Lulli,  and  it  was  he  who  prepared  the  way  for 
the  Chevalier  Gluck :  therefore  his  family  have  a  right 
to  expect  assistance  from  the  Parisians,  who  on  several 
occasions  have  cared  for  the  descendants  of  Racine  and 
the  grandchildren  of  the  great  Corneille.  If  I  had  been 
in  Paris,  I  certainly  would  have  given  two  hundred  francs 
for  a  seat;  and  I  take  this  opportunity  to  beg  you  to 
hand  that  sum  to  the  poor  family,  who  can  not  fail  to  be 
unhappy  in  their  disappointment.  At  the  same  time  I 
send  you  a  power  of  attorney  for  M.  Guyot,  by  which  I 
renounce  all  claims  to  the  parts  of  my  operas  which  may 
be  represented  at  the  benefit  for  the  celebrated  and  un- 
fortunate Rameau  family.  Why  will  you  not  come  to 
Konigsberg  at  the  festival?  Why,  in  other  words,  are 
you  not  in  Berlin?  What  splendid  music  we  have  in 
preparation !  As  to  myself,  it  is  not  only  a  source  of 
pleasure  to  me,  but  I  feel  it  a  duty,  in  the  position  I 
hold,  to  compose  a  grand  march,  to  be  performed  at 
Konigsberg  while  the  royal  procession  passes  from  the 
castle  into  the  church,  where  the  ceremony  of  crowning 
is  to  take  place.  I  will  even  compose  a  hymn,  to  be  ex- 
ecuted on  the  day  that  our  king  and  master  returns  to 
his  good  Berlin.  Besides,  I  have  promised  to  write  an 
overture  for  the  great  concert  of  the  four  nations,  which 
the  directors  of  the  London  exhibition  intend  to  give  at 
the  opening  of  the  same,  next  spring,  in  the  Crystal 
Palace.  All  this  keeps  me  back :  it  has  robbed  me  of 


224  GREAT   ITALIAN*   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

my  autumn,  and  will  also  take  a  good  part  of  next 
spring ;  but  with  the  help  of  God,  dear  friend,  I  hope 
we  shall  see  each  other  again  next  year,  free  from  all 
cares,  in  the  charming  little  town  of  Spa,  listening  to 
the  babbling  of  its  waters  and  the  rustling  of  its  old 
gray  oaks.  Truly  your  friend, 

MEYERBEER. 

IV. 

MEYERBEER'S  operas  are  so  intricate  in  their 
elements,  and  travel  so  far  out  of  the  beaten  track 
of  precedent  and  rule,  that  it  is  difficult  to  clearly 
describe  their  characteristics  in  a  few  words.  His 
original  flow  of  melody  could  not  have  been  very 
rich,  for  none  of  his  tunes  have  become  household 
words,  and  his  excessive  use  of  that  element  of 
opera  which  has  nothing  to  do  with  music,  as  in 
the  case  of  Wagner,  can  have  but  one  explana- 
tion. It  is  in  the  treatment  of  the  orchestra 
that  he  has  added  most  largely  to  the  genuine 
treasures  of  music.  His  command  of  color  in 
tone-painting  and  power  of  dramatic  suggestion 
have  rarely  been  equaled,  and  never  surpassed. 
His  genius  for  musical  rhythm  is  the  most  marked 
element  in  his  power.  This  is  specially  noticeable 
in  his  dance  music,  which  is  very  bold,  brilliant, 
and  voluptuous.  The  vivacity  and  grace  of  the 
ballets  in  his  operas  saye  more  than  one  act 
which  otherwise  would  be  insufferably  heavy  and 
tedious.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  most 


MEYERBEER.  225 

spontaneous  side  of  his  creative  fancy  is  found  in 
these  affluent,  vigorous,  and  stirring  measures. 

Meyerbeer  appears  always  to  have  been  un- 
certain of  himself  and  his  work.  There  was  little 
of  that  masterly  prevision  of  effect  in  his  mind 
which  is  one  of  the  attributes  of  the  higher  imagi- 
nation. His  operas,  though  most  elaborately  con- 
structed, were  often  entirely  modified  and  changed 
in  rehearsal,  and  some  of  the  finest  scenes  both  in 
the  dramatic  and  musical  sense  were  the  out- 
come of  some  happy  accidental  suggestion  at  the 
very  last  moment.  "  Robert,"  "  Les  Huguenots," 
"  Le  Prophete,"  in  the  forms  we  have  them,  are 
quite  different  from  those  in  which  they  were  first 
cast.  These  operas  have  therefore  been  called 
"  the  most  magnificent  patchwork  in  the  history 
of  art,"  though  this  is  a  harsh  phrasing  of  the 
fact,  which  somewhat  outrides  justice.  Certain 
it  is,  however,  that  Meyerbeer  was  largely  in- 
debted to  the  chapter  of  accidents. 

The  testimony  of  Dr.  Veron,  who  was  mana- 
ger of  the  Grand  Opera  during  the  most  of  the 
composer's  brilliant  career,  is  of  great  interest,  as 
illustrating  this  trait  of  Meyerbeer's  composition. 
He  tells  us  in  his  "  Memoires,"  before  alluded  to, 
that  "  Robert "  was  made  and  remade  before  its 
final  production.  The  ghastly  but  effective  color 
of  the  resuscitation  scene  in  the  graveyard  of  the 
ruined  convent  was  a  change  wrrought  by  a  stage 
manager,  who  was  disgusted  with  the  chorus  of 


226  GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

simpering  women  in  the  original.  This  led  Meyer- 
beer to  compose  the  weird  ballet  music  which  ie 
such  a  characteristic  feature  of  "  Robert  le  Dia- 
ble."  So,  too,  we  are  told  on  the  same  authority, 
the  fourth  act  of  "  Les  Huguenots,"  which  is  the 
most  powerful  single  act  in  Meyerbeer's  operas, 
owes  its  present  shape  to  Nourrit,  the  most  intel- 
lectual and  creative  tenor  singer  of  whom  we  have 
record.  It  was  originally  designed  that  the  St. 
Bartholomew  massacre  should  be  organized  by 
Queen  Marguerite,  but  Nourrit  pointed  out  that 
the  interest  centering  in  the  heroine,  Valentine, 
as  an  involuntary  and  horrified  witness,  would  be 
impaired  by  the  predominance  of  another  female 
character.  So  the  plot  was  largely  reconstructed, 
and  fresh  music  written.  Another  still  more  strik- 
ing attraction  was  the  addition  of  the  great  duet 
with  which  the  act  now  closes — a  duet  which  crit- 
ics have  cited  as  an  evidence  of  unequaled  power, 
coming  as  it  does  at  the  very  heels  of  such  an  as- 
tounding chorus  as  "  The  Blessing  of  the  Swords." 
Nourrit  felt  that  the  parting  of  the  two  lovers  at 
such  a  time  and  place  demanded  such  an  outburst 
and  confession  as  would  be  wrung  from  them  by 
the  agony  of  the  situation.  Meyerbeer  acted  on 
the  suggestion  with  such  felicity  and  force  as  to 
make  it  the  crowning  beauty  of  the  work.  Simi- 
lar changes  are  understood  to  have  been  made  in 
"  Le  Prophete  "  by  advice  of  Nourrit,  whose  poeti- 
cal insight  seems  to  have  been  unerring.  It  was 


MEYERBEER.  227 

left  to  Duprez,  Nourrit's  successor,  however,  to  be 
the  first  exponent  of  John  of  Ley  den. 

These  instances  suffice  to  show  how  uncertain 
and  unequal  was  the  grasp  of  Meyerbeer's  genius, 
and  to  explain  in  part  why  he  was  so  prone  to 
gorgeous  effects,  aside  from  that  tendency  of  the 
Israelitish  nature  which  delights  in  show  and 
glitter.  We  see  something  in  it  akin  to  the  trick 
of  the  rhetorician,  who  seeks  to  hide  poverty  of 
thought  under  glittering  phrases.  Yet  Meyerbeer 
rose  to  occasions  with  a  force  that  was  something 
gigantic.  Once  his  work  was  clearly  defined  in 
a  mind  not  powerfully  creative,  he  expressed  it  in 
music  with  such  vigor,  energy,  and  warmth  of 
color  as  can  not  be  easily  surpassed.  With  this 
composer  there  was  but  little  spontaneous  flow 
of  musical  thought,  clothing  itself  in  forms  of 
unconscious  and  perfect  beauty,  as  in  the  case 
of  Mozart,  Beethoven,  Cherubini,  Rossini,  and 
others  who  could  be  cited.  The  constitution  of 
his  mind  demanded  some  external  power  to  bring 
forth  the  gush  of  musical  energy. 

The  operas  of  Meyerbeer  may  be  best  de- 
scribed as  highly  artistic  and  finished  mosaic 
work,  containing  much  that  is  precious  with 
much  that  is  false.  There  are  parts  of  all  his 
operas  which  can  not  be  surpassed  for  beauty  of 
music,  dramatic  energy,  and  fascination  of  effect. 
In  addition,  the  strength  and  richness  of  his  or- 
chestration, which  contains  original  strokes  not 


228  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

found  in  other  composers,  give  him  a  lasting 
claim  on  the  admiration  of  the  lovers  of  music. 
No  other  composer  has  united  so  many  glaring 
defects  with  such  splendid  power  ;  and  were  it 
not  that  Meyerbeer  strained  his  ingenuity  to  tax 
the  resources  of  the  singer  in  every  possible  way, 
not  even  the  mechanical  difficulty  of  producing 
these  operas  in  a  fashion  commensurate  with  their 
plan  would  prevent  their  taking  a  high  place 
among  popular  operas. 


GOUNOD  AND  THOMAS. 

i. 

MOSCHELES,  one  of  the  severe  classical  pianists 
of  the  German  school,  writes  as  follows  in  1861 
in  a  letter  to  a  friend  :  "  In  Gounod  I  hail  a 
real  composer.  I  have  heard  his  '  Faust '  both  at 
Leipsic  and  Dresden,  and  am  charmed  with  that 
refined,  piquant  music.  Critics  may  rave  if  they 
like  against  the  mutilation  of  Goethe's  master- 
piece ;  the  opera  is  sure  to  attract,  for  it  is  a  fresh, 
interesting  work,  with  a  copious  flow  of  melody 
and  lovely  instrumentation." 

Henry  Chorley  in  his  "  Thirty  Years'  Musical 
Recollections,"  writing  of  the  year  1851,  says  : 
"  To  a  few  hearers,  since  then  grown  into  a  Euro- 
pean public,  neither  the  warmest  welcome  nor 
the  most  bleak  indifference  could  alter  the  con- 


^K^ 


CHARLES  GOUNOD. 


GOUNOD   AND    THOMAS.  229 

viction  that  among  the  composers  who  have  ap- 
peared during  the  last  twenty-five  years,  M.  Gou- 
nod was  the  most  promising  one,  as  showing  the 
greatest  combination  of  sterling  science,  beauty 
of  idea,  freshness  of  fancy,  and  individuality. 
Before  a  note  of  *  Sappho '  was  written,  certain 
sacred  Roman  Catholic  compositions  and  some 
exquisite  settings  of  French  verse  had  made  it 
clear  to  some  of  the  acutest  judges  and  profound- 
est  musicians  living,  that  in  him  at  last  something 
true  and  new  had  come — may  I  not  say,  the  most 
poetical  of  French  musicians  that  has  till  now 
written  ?  "  The  same  genial  and  acute  critic,  in 
further  discussing  the  envy,  jealousy,  and  preju- 
dice that  Gounod  awakened  in  certain  musical 
quarters,  writes  in  still  more  decided  strains  : 
"  The  fact  has  to  be  swallowed  and  digested  that 
already  the  composer  of  '  Sappho,'  the  choruses 
to  'Ulysse,'  'Le  Medecin  malgre  lui,'  'Faust,' 
'Philemon  et  Baucis,'  a  superb  Cecilian  mass, 
two  excellent  symphonies,  and  half  a  hundred 
songs  and  romances,  which  may  be  ranged  not 
far  from  Schubert's  and  above  any  others  exist- 
ing in  France,  is  one  of  the  very  few  individuals 
left  to  whom  musical  Europe  is  now  looking  for 
its  pleasure."  Surely  it  is  enough  praise  for  a 
great  musician  that,  in  the  domain  of  opera, 
church  music,  symphony,  and  song,  he  has  risen 
above  all  others  of  his  time  in  one  direction,  and 
in  all  been  surpassed  by  none. 


230  GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

It  was  not  till  "  Faust "  was  produced  that 
Gounod's  genius  evinced  its  highest  capacity.  For 
nineteen  years  the  exquisite  melodies  of  this  great 
work  have  rung  in  the  ears  of  civilization  without 
losing  one  whit  of  the  power  with  which  they 
first  fascinated  the  lovers  of  music.  The  verdict 
which  the  aged  Moscheles  passed  in  his  Leipsic 
home — Moscheles,  the  friend  of  Beethoven,  Weber, 
Schumann,  and  Mendelssohn  ;  which  was  reechoed 
by  the  patriarchal  Rossini,  who  came  from  his 
Passy  retirement  to  offer  his  congratulations ; 
which  Auber  took  up  again,  as  with  tears  of  joy 
in  his  eyes  he  led  Gounod,  the  ex-pupil  of  the 
Conservatory,  through  the  halls  wherein  had  been 
laid  the  foundation  of  his  musical  skill — that  ver- 
dict has  been  affirmed  over  and  over  again  by  the 
world.  For  in  "Faust"  we  recognize  not  only 
some  of  the  most  noble  music  ever  written,  but 
a  highly  dramatic  expression  of  spiritual  truth. 
It  is  hardly  a  question  that  Gounod  has  succeeded 
in  an  unrivaled  degree  in  expressing  the  charac- 
ters and  symbolisms  of  Mephistopheles,  Faust, 
and  Gretchen  in  music  not  merely  beautiful,  but 
spiritual,  humorous,  subtile,  and  voluptuous,  ac- 
cordingly as  the  varied  meanings  of  Goethe's 
masterpiece  demand. 

Visitors  at  Paris,  while  the  American  civil 
war  was  at  its  height,  might  frequently  have  ob- 
served at  the  beautiful  Theatre  Lyrique,  after- 
ward burned  by  the  Vandals  of  the  Commune,  a 


GOUXOD   AND    THOMAS.  231 

noticeable-looking  man,  of  blonde  complexion  and 
tawny  beard,  clear-cut  features,  and  large,  bright, 
almost  somber-looking  eyes.  As  the  opera  of 
"  Faust "  progresses,  his  features  eloquently  ex- 
press his  varying  emotions,  now  of  approval,  now 
of  annoyance  at  different  parts  of  the  perform- 
ance. M.  Gounod  is  criticising  the  interpretation 
of  the  great  opera,  which  suddenly  lifted  him 
into  fame  as  perhaps  the  most  imaginative  and 
creative  of  late  composers. 

An  aggressive  disposition,  an  energy  and  faith 
that  accepted  no  rebuffs,  and  the  power  of  "  toil- 
ing terribly,"  had  enabled  Gounod  to  battle  his 
way  into  the  front  rank.  Unlike  Rossini  and 
Auber,  he  disdained  social  recreation,  and  was 
so  rarely  seen  in  the  fashionable  quarters  of  Paris 
and  London  that  only  an  occasional  musical  an- 
nouncement kept  him  before  the  eyes  of  the  pub- 
lic. Gounod  seems  to  have  devoted  himself  to 
the  strict  sphere  of  his  art-life  with  an  exclusive 
devotion  quite  foreign  to  the  general  temperament 
of  the  musician,  into  which  something  luxurious 
and  pleasure-loving  is  so  apt  to  enter.  This  com- 
poser, standing  in  the  very  front  rank  of  his  fel- 
lows, has  injected  into  the  veins  of  the  French 
school  to  which  he  belongs  a  seriousness,  depth, 
and  imaginative  vigor,  which  prove  to  us  how 
much  he  is  indebted  to  German  inspiration  and 
German  models. 

Charles  Gounod,  born  in  Paris  June  17,  1818, 


232  GREAT   ITALIAN"   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

betrayed  so  much  passion  for  music  during  tender 
years,  that  his  father  gave  him  every  opportunity 
to  gratify  and  improve  this  marked  bias.  Jle 
studied  under  Reicha  and  Le  Sueur,  and  finally 
under  Hal6vy,  completing  under  the  latter  the 
preparation  which  fitted  him  for  entrance  into  the 
Conservatory.  The  talents  he  displayed  there 
were  such  as  to  fix  on  him  the  attention  of  his 
most  distinguished  masters.  He  carried  off  the 
second  prize  at  nineteen,  and  at  twenty-one  re- 
ceived the  grand  prize  for  musical  composition 
awarded  by  the  French  Institute.  His  first  pub- 
lished work  was  a  mass  performed  at  the  Church 
of  St.  Eustache,  which,  while  not  specially  success- 
ful, was  sufficiently  encouraging  to  both  the  young 
composer  and  his  friends. 

Gounod  now  proceeded  to  Rome,  where  there 
seems  to  have  been  some  inclination  on  his  part  to 
study  for  holy  orders.  But  music  was  not  des- 
tined to  be  cheated  of  so  gifted  a  votary.  In  1841 
he  wrote  a  second  mass,  which  was  so  well  thought 
of  in  the  papal  capital  as  to  gain  for  the  young 
composer  the  appointment  of  an  honorary  chapel- 
master  for  life.  This  recognition  of  his  genius 
settled  his  final  conviction  that  music  was  his  true 
life-work,  though  the  religious  sentiment,  or  rath- 
er a  sympathy  with  mysticism,  is  strikingly  appar- 
ent in  all  of  his  compositions.  The  next  goal  in 
the  composer's  art  pilgrimage  was  the  music-lov- 
ing city  of  Vienna,  the  home  of  Haydn,  Mozart, 


GOUNOD   AND    THOMAS.  233 

Beethoven,  and  Schubert,  though  its  people  waited 
till  the  last  three  great  geniuses  were  dead  before  it 
accorded  them  the  loving  homage  which  they  have 
since  so  freely  rendered.  The  reception  given  by 
the  capricious  Viennese  to  a  requiem  and  a  Lenten 
mass  (for  as  yet  Gounod  only  thought  of  sacred 
music  as  his  vocation)  was  not  such  as  to  encour- 
age a  residence.  Paris,  the  queen  of  the  world, 
toward  which  every  French  exile  ever  looks  with 
longing  eyes,  seemed  to  beckon  him  back  ;  so  at 
the  age  of  twenty-five  he  turned  his  steps  again 
to  his  beloved  Lutetia.  His  education  was  fin- 
ished ;  he  had  completed  his  Wanderjahre ;  and 
he  was  eager  to  enter  on  the  serious  work  of 
life. 

He  was  appointed  chapelmaster  at  the  Church 
of  Foreign  Missions,  in  which  office  he  remained 
for  six  years,  in  the  mean  while  marrying  a  charm- 
ing woman,  the  daughter  of  Herr  Zimmermann, 
the  celebrated  theologian  and  orator.  In  1849  he 
composed  his  third  mass,  which  made  a  powerful 
impression  on  musicians  and  critics,  though  Gou- 
nod's ambition,  which  seems  to  have  been  power- 
fully stimulated  by  his  marriage,  began  to  realize 
that  it  was  in  the  field  of  lyric  drama  only  that 
his  powers  would  find  their  full  development.  He 
had  been  an  ardent  student  in  literature  and  art 
as  well  as  in  music  ;  his  style  had  been  formed  on 
the  most  noble  and  serious  German  models,  and 
his  tastes,  awakened  into  full  activity,  carried  him 


234  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

with  great  zeal  into  the  loftier  field  of  operatic 
composition. 

The  dominating  influence  of  Gluck,  so  potent 
in  shaping  the  tastes  and  methods  of  the  more 
serious  French  composers,  asserted  itself  from  the 
beginning  in  the  work  of  Gounod,  and  no  modern 
composer  has  been  so  brilliant  and  effective  a  dis- 
ciple in  carrying  out  the  formulas  of  that  great 
master.  More  free,  flexible,  and  melodious  than 
Spontini  and  Halevy,  measuring  his  work  by  a 
conception  of  art  more  lofty  and  ideal  than  that 
of  Meyerbeer,  and  in  creative  power  and  origi- 
nality by  far  their  superior,  Gounod's  genius,  as 
shown  in  the  one  opera  of  "  Faust,"  suffices  to 
stamp  his  great  mastership. 

But  he  had  many  years  of  struggle  yet  before 
this  end  was  to  be  achieved.  His  early  lyric  com- 
positions fell  dead.  Score  after  score  was  rejected 
by  the  managers.  No  one  cared  to  hazard  the 
risk  of  pi'oducing  an  opera  by  this  unknown  com- 
poser. His  first  essay  was  a  pastoral  opera,  "  Phile- 
mon and  Baucis,"  and  it  did  not  escape  from  the 
manuscript  for  many  a  long  year,  though  it  has 
in  more  recent  times  been  received  by  critical  Ger- 
man audiences  with  great  applause.  A  catalogue 
of  Gounod's  failures  would  have  no  significance 
except  as  showing  that  his  industry  and  energy 
were  not  relaxed  by  public  neglect.  His  first  de- 
cided encouragement  came  in  1851,  when  "  Sap- 
pho "  was  produced  at  the  French  Opera  through 


GOUNOD   AND    THOMAS.  235 

the  influence  of  Madame  Pauline  Viardot,  the  sis- 
ter of  Malibran,  who  had  a  generous  belief  in  the 
composer's  future,  and  such  a  position  in  the  mu- 
sical world  of  Paris  as  to  make  her  requests  al- 
most mandatory.  This  opera,  based  on  the  fine 
poem  of  l£mile  Augier,  was  well  received,  and 
cheered  Gounod's  heart  to  make  fresh  efforts.  In 
1852  he  composed  the  choruses  for  Poussard's 
classical  tragedy  of  "  TJlysse,"  performed  at  the 
Theatre  Fran9ais.  The  growing  recognition  of 
the  world  was  evidenced  in  his  appointment  as 
director  of  the  Normal  Singing  School  of  Paris, 
the  primary  school  of  the  Conservatory.  In  1854 
a  five-act  opera,  with  a  libretto  from  the  legend  of 
the  "  Bleeding  Nun,"  was  completed  and  produced, 
and  Gounod  was  further  gratified  to  see  that  mu- 
sical authorities  were  willing  to  grant  him  a  dis- 
tinct place  in  the  ranks  of  art,  though  as  yet  not 
a  very  high  one. 

For  years  Gounod's  serious  and  elevated  mind 
had  been  pondering  on  Goethe's  great  poem  as  the 
subject  of  an  opera,  and  there  is  reason  to  conjec- 
ture that  parts  of  it  were  composed  and  arranged, 
if  not  fully  elaborated,  long  prior  to  its  final  crys- 
tallization. But  he  was  not  yet  quite  ready  to 
enter  seriously  on  the  composition  of  the  master- 
piece. He  must  still  try  his  hand  on  lesser  themes. 
Occasional  pieces  for  the  orchestra  or  choruses 
strengthened  his  hold  on  these  important  elements 
of  lyric  composition,  and  in  1858  he  produced 


236  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

"  Le  Medecin  malgre"  lui,"  based  on  Moliere's  com- 
edy, afterward  performed  as  an  English  opera 
under  the  title  of  "  The  Mock  Doctor."  Gounod's 
genius  seems  to  have  had  no  affinity  for  the  grace- 
ful and  sparkling  measures  of  comic  music,  and 
bis  attempt  to  rival  Rossini  and  Auber  in  the  field 
where  they  were  preeminent  was  decidedly  un- 
successful, though  the  opera  contained  much  fine 
music. 

ii. 

THE  year  of  his  triumph  had  at  last  arrived. 
He  had  waited  and  toiled  for  years  over  "  Faust," 
and  it  was  now  ready  to  flash  on  the  world  with 
an  electric  brightness  that  was  to  make  his  name 
instantly  famous.  One  day  saw  him  an  obscure, 
third-rate  composer,  the  next  one  of  the  brilliant 
names  in  art.  "  Faust,"  first  performed  March 
19,  1859,  fairly  took  the  world  by  storm.  Gou- 
nod's warmest  friends  were  amazed  by  the  beauty 
of  the  masterpiece,  in  which  exquisite  melody, 
great  orchestration,  and  a  dramatic  passion  never 
surpassed  in  operatic  art,  were  combined  with  a 
scientific  skill  and  precision  which  would  vie  with 
that  of  the  great  masters  of  harmony.  Carvalho, 
the  manager  of  the  Theatre  Lyrique,  had  pre- 
dicted that  the  work  would  have  a  magnificent 
reception  by  the  art  world,  and  lavished  on  it 
every  stage  resource.  Madame  Miolan-Carvalho, 
his  brilliant  wife,  one  of  the  leading  sopranos  of 


GOUNOD   A.VD    THOMAS.  237 

the  day,  sang  the  role  of  the  heroine,  though  five 
years  afterward  she  was  succeeded  by  Nilsson, 
who  invested  the  part  with  a  poetry  and  tender- 
ness which  have  never  been  quite  equaled. 

"  Faust "  was  received  at  Berlin,  Vienna,  Mi- 
lan, St.  Petersburg,  and  London,  with  an  enthu- 
siasm not  less  than  that  which  greeted  its  Parisian 
debut.  The  clamor  of  dispute  between  the  dif- 
ferent schools  was  for  the  moment  hushed  in  the 
delight  with  which  the  musical  critics  and  public 
of  universal  Europe  listened  to  the  magical  mea- 
sures of  an  opera  which  to  classical  chasteness 
and  severity  of  form  and  elevation  of  motive 
united  such  dramatic  passion,  richness  of  melody, 
and  warmth  of  orchestral  color.  From  that  day 
to  the  present  "  Faust "  has  retained  its  place  as 
not  only  the  greatest  but  the  most  popular  of 
modern  operas.  The  proof  of  the  composer's 
skill  and  sense  of  symmetry  in  the  composition  of 
"  Faust "  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  each  part  is  so 
nearly  necessary  to  the  work,  that  but  few  "  cuts  " 
can  be  made  in  presentation  without  essentially 
marring  the  beauty  of  the  work  ;  and  it  is  there- 
fore given  with  close  faithfulness  to  the  author's 
score. 

After  the  immense  success  of  "  Faust,"  the 
doors  of  the  Academy  were  opened  wide  to  Gou- 
nod. On  February  28,  1862,  the  "  Reine  de 
Saba"  was  produced,  but  was  only  a  succbs  cTes- 

time,  the  libretto  by  Gerard  de  Nerval  not  being 
16 


238   GREAT  ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

fitted  for  a  lyric  tragedy.*  Many  numbers  of  this 
fine  work,  however,  are  still  favorites  on  concert 
programmes,  and  it  has  been  given  in  English 
under  the  name  of  "Irene."  Gounod's  love  of 
romantic  themes,  and  the  interest  in  France  which 
Lamartine's  glowing  eulogies  had  excited  about 
"Mireio,"  the  beautiful  national  poem  of  the 
Provenyal,  M.  Frederic  Mistral,  led  the  former  to 
compose  an  opera  on  a  libretto  from  this  work, 
which  was  given  at  the  Theatre  Lyrique,  March 
19,  1864,  under  the  name  of  "Mireille."  The 
music,  however,  was  rather  descriptive  and  lyric 
than  dramatic,  as  befitted  this  lovely  ideal  of  early 
French  provincial  life  ;  and  in  spite  of  its  contain- 
ing some  of  the  most  captivating  airs  ever  written, 
and  the  fine  interpretation  of  the  heroine  by  Mio- 
lan-Carvalho,  it  was  accepted  with  reservations. 
It  has  since  become  more  popular  in  its  three-act 
form  to  which  it  was  abridged.  It  is  a  tribute  to 
the  essential  beauty  of  Gounod's  music  that,  how- 
ever unsuccessful  as  operas  certain  of  his  works 
have  been,  they  have  all  contributed  charming 
morceaux  for  the  enjoyment  of  concert  audiences. 
Not  only  did  the  airs  of  "  Mireille  "  become  public 
favorites,  but  its  overture  is  frequently  given  as  a 
distinct  orchestral  work. 

*  It  has  been  a  matter  of  frequent  comment  by  the  ablest 
musical  critics  that  many  noble  operas,  now  never  heard,  would 
have  retained  their  place  in  the  repertoires  of  modern  dramatic 
music,  had  it  not  been  for  the  utter  rubbish  to  which  the  music 
has  been  set. 


GOUXOD   AND   THOMAS.  239 

The  opera  of  "  La  Colombe,"  known  in  Eng- 
lish as  "  The  Pet  Dove,"  followed  in  1866  ;  and 
the  next  year  was  produced  the  five-act  opera  of 
"  Romeo  et  Juliette,"  of  which  the  principal  part 
was  again  taken  by  Madame  Miolan-Carvalho. 
The  favorite  pieces  in  this  work,  which  is  a  high- 
ly poetic  rendering  of  Shakespeare's  romantic 
tragedy,  are  the  song  of  Queen  Mab,  the  garden 
duet,  a  short  chorus  in  the  second  act,  and  the 
duel  scene  in  the  third  act.  For  some  occult 
reason,  "  Romeo  et  Juliette,"  though  recognized 
as  a  work  of  exceptional  beauty  and  merit,  and 
still  occasionally  performed,  has  no  permanent 
hold  on  the  operatic  public  of  to-day. 

The  evils  that  fell  on  France  from  the  German 
war  and  the  horrors  of  the  Commune  drove  Gou- 
nod to  reside  in  London,  unlike  Auber,  who  reso- 
lutely refused  to  forsake  the  city  of  his  love,  in 
spite  of  the  suffering  and  privation  which  he  fore- 
saw, and  which  were  the  indirect  cause  of  the 
veteran  composer's  death.  Gounod  remained  sev- 
eral years  in  England,  and  lived  a  retired  life, 
seemingly  as  if  he  shrank  from  public  notice  and 
disdained  public  applause.  His  principal  appear- 
ances were  at  the  Philharmonic,  the  Crystal  Pal- 
ace, and  at  Mrs.  Weldon's  concerts,  where  he 
directed  the  performances  of  his  own  composi- 
tions. The  circumstances  of  his  London  residence 
seem  to  have  cast  a  cloud  over  Gounod's  life  and 
to  have  strangely  unsettled  his  mind.  Patriotic 


240  GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

grief  probably  had  something  to  do  with  this  at 
the  outset.  But  even  more  than  this  as  a  source 
of  permanent  irritation  may  be  reckoned  the  spell 
cast  over  Gounod's  mind  by  a  beaiitiful  adventur- 
ess, who  was  ambitious  to  attain  social  and  musi- 
cal recognition  through  the  falat  of  the  great 
composer's  friendship.  Though  newspaper  re- 
port may  be  credited  with  swelling  and  distorting 
the  naked  facts,  enough  appears  to  be  known  to 
make  it  sure  that  the  evil  genius  of  Gounod's 
London  life  was  a  woman,  who  traded  recklessly 
with  her  own  reputation  and  the  French  composer's 
fame. 

However  untoward  the  surroundings  of  Gou- 
nod, his  genius  did  not  lie  altogether  dormant 
during  this  period  of  friction  and  fretf ulness,  con- 
ditions so  repressive  to  the  best  imaginative  work. 
He  composed  several  masses  and  other  church 
music  ;  a  "  Stabat  Mater "  with  orchestra  ;  the 
oratorio  of  "  Tobie  "  ;  "  Gallia,"  a  lamentation 
for  France  ;  incidental  music  for  Legouve's  trage- 
dy of  "  Les  Deux  Reines,"  and  for  Jules  Barbier's 
"  Jeanne  d'Arc  "  ;  a  large  number  of  songs  and 
romances,  both  sacred  and  secular,  such  as  "  Naza- 
reth," and  "  There  is  a  Green  Hill "  ;  and  orches- 
tral works,  a  "  Salterello  in  A,"  and  the  "  Funeral 
March  of  a  Marionette." 

At  last  he  broke  loose  from  the  bonds  of  Deli- 
lah, and,  remembering  that  he  had  been  elected 
to  fill  the  place  of  Clapisson  in  the  Institute,  he 


GOUNOD   AND   THOMAS.  241 

returned  to  Paris  in  1876  to  resume  the  position 
which  his  genius  so  richly  deserved.  On  the  5th 
of  March  of  the  following  year  his  "  Cinq-Mars  " 
was  brought  out  at  the  Theatre  de  1'Opera  Co- 
mique  ;  but  it  showed  the  traces  of  the  haste  and 
carelessness  with  which  it  was  written,  and  there- 
fore commanded  little  more  than  a  respectful 
hearing.  Gounod's  last  two  operas,  "Polyeucte" 
and  "LeTribut  de  Zamora,"  both  produced  in 
Paris  in  the  winter  of  1879,  though  marked  by 
characteristic  beauty,  never  became  stock  operas 
of  the  stage.  Thenceforward  his  work  was  in  re- 
ligious music,  his  genius  returning  to  its  earlier 
bent.  The  great  oratorio,  "  Redemption,"  and 
the  remarkable  triology,  "  Mors  et  Vila,"  which 
had  been  begun  in  England  and  completed  after 
years  of  work  in  study  and  elaboration,  were  at 
once  accepted  as  supreme  works  of  their  kind 
worthy  to  rank  with  the  masterpieces  of  the 
world.  The  repressed  aspirations  of  the  com- 
poser poured  through  their  natural  outlet  with  a 
spiritual  energy  and  passion  which  wrought  per- 
manently in  profound  religious  art.  The  dis- 
tinctive trait  of  his  dramatic  conceptions  seems  to 
be  an  imagination  hovering  between  sensuous 
images  and  mystic  dreams.  Originally  inspired 
by  the  severe  Greek  sculpture  of  Gluck's  music, 
he  has  applied  that  master's  laws  in  the  creation 
of  tone-pictures  full  of  voluptuous  color,  but  yet 
solemnized  at  times  by  an  exaltation  which  recalls 


242  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

the  time  when  as  a  youth  he  thought  of  the  spirit- 
ual dignity  of  the  priesthood.  The  use  he  makes 
of  his  religious  reminiscences  is  familiarly  illus- 
trated in  "  Faust."  The  contrast  between  two 
opposing  principles  is  marked  in  all  of  Gounod's 
dramatic  works,  and  in  "  Faust "  this  struggle  of 
"a  soul  which  invades  mysticism  and  which  still 
seeks  to  express  voluptuousness  "  not  only  colors 
the  music  with  a  novel  fascination,  but  amounts 
to  an  interesting  psychological  problem. 

HI. 

GOUNOD'S  genius  fills  too  large  a  space  in  con- 
temporary music  to  be  passed  over  without  a  brief 
special  study.  In  pursuit  of  this  no  better  method 
suggests  itself  than  an  examination  of  the  opera 
of  "  Faust,"  into  which  the  composer  poured  the 
finest  inspirations  of  his  life,  even  as  Goethe  em- 
bodied the  sum  and  flower  of  his  long  career, 
which  had  garnered  so  many  experiences,  in  his 
poetic  masterpiece. 

The  story  of  "  Faust  "  has  tempted  many  com- 
posers. Prince  Radziwill  tried  it,  and  then  Spohr 
set  a  version  of  the  theme  at  once  coarse  and  cruel, 
full  of  vulgar  witchwork  and  love-making  only  fit 
for  a  chambermaid.  Since  then  Schumann,  Liszt, 
Wagner,  and  Berlioz  have  treated  the  story  orches- 
trally  with  more  or  less  success.  Gounod's  treat- 
ment of  the  poem  is  by  far  the  most  intelligible, 
poetic,  and  dramatic  ever  attempted,  and.  there  is 


GOUNOD   AND   THOMAS.  243 

no  opera  since  the  days  of  Gluck   with  so  little 
weak  music,  except  Beethoven's  "  Fidelio." 

In  the  introduction  the  restless  gloom  of  the 
old  philospher  and  the  contrasted  joys  of  youth 
engaged  in  rustic  revelry  outside  are  expressed 
with  graphic  force  ;  and  the  Kirmes  music  in  tho 
next  act  is  so  quaint  and  original,  as  well  as  mel  > 
dious,  as  to  give  the  sense  of  delightful  comedy 
When  Marguerite  enters  on  the  scene,  we  h?\  • 
waltz  and  chorus  of  such  beauty  and  piquaiu  ,  ,-, 
would  have  done  honor  to  Mozart.  Indeed,  hi  the 
dramatic  use  of  dance  music  Gounod  hardly  yields 
in  skill  and  originality  to  Meyerbeer  himself, 
though  the  latter  composer  specially  distinguished 
himself  in  this  direction.  The  third  and  fourth 
acts  develop  all  the  tenderness  and  passion  of 
Marguerite's  character,  all  the  tragedy  of  her 
doom. 

After  Fausfs  beautiful  monologue  in  the  gar- 
den come  the  song  of  the  "  King  of  Thule  "  and 
Marguerite's  delight  at  finding  the  jewels,  which 
conjoined  express  the  artless  vanity  of  the  child 
in  a  manner  alike  full  of  grace  and  pathos.  The 
quartet  that  follows  is  one  of  great  beauty,  the 
music  of  each  character  being  thoroughly  in  keep- 
ing, while  the  admirable  science  of  the  composer 
blends  all  into  thorough  artistic  unity.  It  is 
hardly  too  much  to  assert  that  the  love  scene 
which  closes  this  act  has  nothing  to  surpass  it 
for  fire,  passion,  and  tenderness,  seizing  the  mind 


244  GIIEAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

of  the  hearer  with  absorbing  force  by  its  sugges- 
tion and  imagery,  while  the  almost  cloying  sweet- 
ness of  the  melody  is  such  as  Rossini  and  Schu- 
bert only  could  equal.  The  full  confession  of 
the  enamored  pair  contained  in  the  brief  adagio 
throbs  with  such  rapture  as  to  find  its  most  sug- 
gestive parallel  in  the  ardent  words  commencing 

Gallop  apace,  ye  fiery-footed  steeds, 

placed  by  Shakespeare  in  the  mouth  of  the  ex- 
pectant Juliet. 

Beauties  succeed  each  other  in  swift  and  pic- 
turesque succession,  fitting  the  dramatic  order 
with  a  nicety  which  forces  the  highest  praise  of 
the  critic.  The  march  and  chorus  marking  the 
return  of  Valentine's  regiment  beat  with  a  fire 
and  enthusiasm  to  which  the  tramp  of  victorious 
squadrons  might  well  keep  step.  The  wicked  mu- 
sic of  Mephistopheles  in  the  sarcastic  serenade, 
the  powerful  duel  trio,  and  Valentine's  curse  are 
of  the  highest  order  of  expression  ;  while  the 
church  scene,  where  the  fiend  whispers  his  taunts 
in  the  ear  of  the  disgraced  Marguerite,  as  the 
gloomy  musical  hymn  and  peals  of  the  organ 
menace  her  with  an  irreversible  doom,  is  a  weird 
and  thrilling  picture  of  despair,  agony,  and  devil- 
ish exultation. 

Gounod  has  been  blamed  for  violating  the  rev- 
erence due  to  sacred  things,  employing  portions  of 
the  church  service  in  this  scene,  instead  of  writ- 


GOUNOD   AND   THOMAS.  245 

ing  music  for  it.  But  this  is  the  last  resort  of 
critical  hostility,  seeking  a  peg  on  which  to  hang 
objection.  Meyerbeer's  splendid  introduction  of 
Luther's  great  hymn,  "  Ein'  f este  Burg,"  in  "  Les 
Huguenots,"  called  forth  a  similar  criticism  from 
his  German  assailants.  Some  of  the  most  dra- 
matic effects  in  music  have  been  created  by  this 
species  of  musical  quotation,  so  rich  in  its  appeal 
to  memory  and  association.  Who  that  has  once 
heard  can  forget  the  thrilling  power  of  "La 
Marseillaise  "  in  Schumann's  setting  of  Heinrich 
Heine's  poem  of  "  The  Two  Grenadiers  "  ?  The 
two  French  soldiers,  weary  and  broken-hearted 
after  the  Russian  campaign,  approach  the  Ger- 
man frontier.  The  veterans  are  moved  to  tears 
as  they  think  of  their  humiliated  Emperor.  Up 
speaks  one  suffering  with  a  deadly  hurt  to  the 
other  :  "  Friend,  when  I  am  dead,  bury  me  in  my 
native  France,  with  my  cross  of  honor  on  my 
breast,  and  my  musket  in  my  hand,  and  lay  my 
good  sword  by  my  side."  Until  this  time  the 
melody  has  been  a  slow  and  dirge-like  stave  in 
the  minor  key.  The  old  soldier  declares  his  be- 
lief that  he  will  rise  again  from  the  clods  when 
he  hears  the  victorious  tramp  of  his  Emperor's 
squadrons  passing  over  his  grave,  and  the  minor 
breaks  into  a  weird  setting  of  the  "  Marseillaise  " 
in  the  major  key.  Suddenly  it  closes  with  a  few 
solemn  chords,  and,  instead  of  the  smoke  of  battle 
and  the  march  of  the  jmantom  host,  the  imagina- 


246  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

tion  sees  the  lonely  plain  with  its  green  mounds 
and  moldering  crosses. 

Readers  will  pardon  this  digression  illustrat- 
ing an  artistic  law,  of  which  Gounod  has  made 
such  effective  use  in  the  church  scene  of  his 
"  Faust "  in  heightening  its  tragic  solemnity. 
The  wild  goblin  symphony  in  the  fifth  act  has 
added  some  new  effects  to  the  gamut  of  deviltry 
in  music,  and  shows  that  Weber  in  the  "  Wolf's 
Glen "  and  Meyerbeer  in  the  "  Cloisters  of  St. 
Rosalie  "  did  not  exhaust  the  somewhat  limited 
field.  The  whole  of  this  part  of  the  act,  sadly 
mutilated  and  abridged  often  in  representation, 
is  singularly  picturesque  and  striking  as  a  musi- 
cal conception,  and  is  a  fitting  companion  to  the 
tragic  prison  scene.  The  despair  of  the  poor 
crazed  Marguerite  /  her  delirious  joy  in  recog- 
nizing Faust ;  the  temptation  to  fly  ;  the  filial 
outburst  of  faith  and  hope,  as  the  sense  of  Divine 
pardon  sinks  into  her  soul — all  these  are  touched 
with  the  fire  of  genius,  and  the  passion  sweeps 
with  an  unfaltering  force  to  its  climax.  These 
references  to  the  details  of  a  work  so  familiar  as 
"Faust,"  conveying  of  course  no  fresh  informa- 
tion to  the  reader,  have  been  made  to  illustrate 
the  peculiarities  of  Gounod's  musical  tempera- 
ment, which  sways  in  such  fascinating  contrast 
between  the  voluptuous  and  the  spiritual.  But 
whether  his  accents  belong  to  the  one  or  the 
other,  they  bespeak  a  mood^  flushed  with  earnest- 


GOUN'OD   AND    THOMAS.  247 

ness  and  fervor,  and  a  mind  which  recoils  from 
the  frivolous,  however  graceful  it  may  be. 

In  the  Franco-German  school,  of  which  Gou- 
nod is  so  high  an  exponent,  the  orchestra  is  busy 
throughout  developing  the  history  of  the  emo- 
tions, and  in  "  Faust "  especially  it  is  as  busy  a 
factor  in  expressing  the  passions  of  the  characters 
as  the  vocal  parts.  Not  even  in  the  "  garden 
scene"  does  the  singing  reduce  the  instruments 
to  a  secondary  importance.  The  difference  be- 
tween Gounod  and  Wagner,  who  professes  to 
elaborate  the  importance  of  the  orchestra  in  dra- 
matic music,  is  that  the  former  has  a  skill  in 
writing  for  the  voice  which  the  other  lacks.  The 
one  lifts  the  voice  by  the  orchestration,  the  other 
submerges  it.  Gounod's  affluence  of  lovely  mel- 
ody can  only  be  compared  with  that  of  Mozart 
and  Rossini,  and  his  skill  and  ingenuity  in  treat- 
ing the  orchestra  have  wrung  reluctant  praise 
from  his  bitterest  opponents. 

The  special  power  which  makes  Gounod  unique 
in  his  art,  aside  from  those  elements  before  al- 
luded to  as  derived  from  temperament,  is  his  un- 
erring sense  of  dramatic  fitness,  which  weds  such 
highly  suggestive  music  to  each  varying  phase  of 
character  and  action.  To  this  perhaps  one  excep- 
tion may  be  made.  While  he  possesses  a  certain 
airy  playfulness,  he  fails  in  rich  broad  humor 
utterly,  and  situations  of  comedy  are  by  no 
means  so  well  handled  as  the  more  serious  scenes. 


248   GREAT    ITALIAN'    AND   FKEKCII   COMPOSERS. 

A  good  illustration  of  this  may  be  found  in  "  Le 
Medecin  malgre  lui,"  in  the  couplets  given  to  the 
drunken  Syanarelle.  They  are  beautiful  music, 
but  utterly  unflavored  with  the  vis  comica. 

For  several  years  before  his  death,  which  oc- 
curred October  16,  1893,  Gounod  lived  in  seclu- 
sion. "  Faust"  and  "Mors  et  Vila"  alone  would 
have  stamped  him  as  one  of  the  greatest  com- 
posers of  any  age.  But  in  all  his  works  he  has 
shown  melodic  freshness  and  fertility,  mastery  of 
musical  form,  power  of  orchestration,  and  dra- 
matic energy.  Among  his  contemporaries  Wag- 
ner alone  was  his  equal  in  originality  of  genius. 

IV. 

AMONG  contemporary  French  composers  there 
is  no  name  which  suggests  itself  in  comparison 
with  that  of  Gounod  so  worthily  as  that  of  Am- 
broise  Thomas,  famous  in  every  country  where  the 
opera  is  a  favorite  form  of  public  amusement,  as 
the  author  of  "  Mignon  "  and  "  Hamlet."  Lacking 
the  depth  and  passion  of  Gounod,  he  is  distin- 
guished by  a  peculiar  sparkle,  grace,  and  Gallic 
lightness  of  touch  ;  and  if  we  do  not  find  in  him 
the  earnestness  and  spiritual  significance  of  his 
rival's  conceptions,  there  is,  on  the  other  hand,  in 
the  works  of  Thomas,  a  glow  of  poetic  sentiment 
which  invests  them  with  a  charming  atmosphere, 
peculiarly  their  own.  Perhaps  in  his  own  coun- 
try Thomas  enjoys  a  repute  still  higher  than  that 


GOUNOD  AND  THOMAS.         249 

of  Gounod,  for  his  genius  is  more  peculiarly 
French,  while  the  composer  of  "  Faust "  shows 
the  radical  influence  of  the  German  school,  not 
only  in  the  cast  of  his  thoughts  and  temperament, 
but  in  his  technical  musical  methods.  Still,  as  all 
artists  are  profoundly  moved  by  the  tendencies 
of  their  age,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  find  in 
the  later  works  of  Thomas,  on  which  his  celeb- 
rity is  based,  some  unconscious  modeling  of  form 
wrought  by  that  musical  school  of  which  Richard 
Wagner  is  the  most  advanced  type. 

Ambroise  Thomas  was  born  at  Metz,  France, 
on  August  5,  1811,  and  is  therefore  by  seven 
years  the  senior  of  Charles  Gounod.  His  apti- 
tudes for  music  were  so  strong  that  he  learned 
the  notes  as  quickly  as  he  acquired  the  letters 
of  the  alphabet.  At  the  age  of  four  he  was  in- 
structed in  his  solfeggi  by  his  father,  who  was 
a  professor  of  music,  and  three  years  later  he 
began  to  take  lessons  on  the  violin  and  piano. 
When  he  was  seventeen  he  was  thoroughly  pro- 
ficient in  all  the  preparatory  studies  demanded 
for  admission  to  the  Paris  Conservatoire,  and  he 
easily  obtained  admission  into  that  great  institu- 
tion. He  first  studied  under  Zimmermann  and 
Kalkbrenner,  and  afterward  under  Dourlen,  Bar- 
bereau,  Le  Sueur,  and  Reicha.  For  successive 
years  he  carried  off  first  prizes  :  for  the  piano  in 
1829  ;  for  harmony,  in  1830  ;  and  in  1832  the 
highest  honor  in  composition  was  awarded  him, 


250  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

the  Prix  de  Rome,  which  allowed  him  to  go  to 
Italy  as  a  government  stipendiary. 

Our  young  laureate  passed  three  years  in 
Italy,  spending  most  of  his  time  at  Rome  and 
Naples.  The  special  result  of  his  Italian  studies 
was  a  requiem  mass,  which  was  performed  with 
great  approbation  from  its  musical  judges  at  Paris 
and  Rome.  After  traveling  in  Germany,  Thomas 
returned  to  Paris  in  1836,  thoroughly  equipped 
for  his  career  as  composer,  for  he  had  been  an 
indefatigable  student,  and  neglected  no  opportu- 
nity of  perfecting  his  knowledge.  The  first  step 
in  the  brilliant  career  of  Thomas  was  the  produc- 
tion of  a  comic  opera  in  one  act,  "La  Double 
fichelle,"  produced  in  1837.  This  met  with  a 
good  reception,  and  it  was  promptly  followed  by 
the  production  of  several  other  light  scores,  that 
further  enhanced  his  reputation  for  talent.  He 
was  not  generally  recognized  by  musicians  as  a 
man  of  marked  promise  till  he  produced  "  Mina," 
a  comic  opera  in  three  acts,  which  was  represented 
in  1843.  The  beauty  of  the  instrumentation  and 
the  melodious  richness  of  the  work  were  unmis- 
takable, and  henceforth  every  production  of  the 
young  composer  was  watched  with  great  interest. 

Ambroise  Thomas  could  not  be  said  to  have 
reached  a  great  popular  success  until  he  produced 
"  Le  Ca'id,"  a  work  of  the  opera-bouffe  type,  which 
instantly  became  an  immense  public  favorite. 
This  was  first  represented  in  1849,  and  it  has  al- 


GOUNOD   AND   THOMAS.  251 

ways  held  its  place  on  the  French  stage  as  one 
of  the  most  delightful  works  of  its  class,  in  spite 
of  the  competition  of  such  later  outgrowths  of 
the  opera-bouffe  school  as  Offenbach,  Lecocq,  and 
others.  The  score  of  this  work  proved  to  be  im- 
mensely amusing  and  brightly  melodious,  and  it 
was  such  a  pecuniary  success  that  the  more  judi- 
cious friends  of  Thomas  feared  that  he  might  be 
seduced  into  cultivating  a  field  far  below  the 
powers  of  his  poetic  imagination  and  thorough 
musical  science.  Strong  heads  might  easily  be 
turned  by  such  lavish  applause,  and  it  would  not 
have  been  wonderful  had  Thomas,  dazzled  by  the 
reception  of  "  Le  Ca'id,"  remained  for  a  long  time 
a  wanderer  from  the  path  which  lay  open  to  his 
great  talents.  The  composer's  ambition,  how- 
ever, proved  to  be  too  high  to  content  itself  with 
ephemeral  success,  or  cultivating  the  more  frivo- 
lous forms  of  his  art,  however  profitable  and 
pleasant  these  might  be. 

In  1850  Ambroise  Thomas  produced  two  ope- 
ras :  "  Le  Songe  d'une  Nuit  d'lSte,"  resembling  in 
style  somewhat  that  masterpiece  produced  in  after- 
years,  "Mignon,"  and  a  somber  work  based  on 
the  legend  of  "  The  Man  with  the  Iron  Mask," 
"Le  Secret  de  la  Reine."  The  melodramatic 
character  of  this  latter  work  seems  to  have  been 
imitated  from  the  highly  accented  and  artificial 
style  of  Verdi,  instead  of  possessing  the  bright 
and  airy  charm  natural  to  Thomas.  The  vacancy 


252  GREAT    ITALIAN"    AND    FRENCH    COMPOSERS. 

left  by  Spontini's  death  in  the  French  Institute 
was  filled  by  the  election  of  M.  Thomas,  who 
was  deemed  most  worthy,  among  all  the  musical 
names  offered,  of  taking  the  place  of  the  author 
of  "  La  Vestale."  He  justified  the  taste  of  his 
co-members  by  his  production  in  1853  of  the 
comic  opera  of  "  La  Tonelli,"  a  work  which, 
though  not  greatly  successful  with  "  hoi  polloi" 
was  an  admirable  specimen  of  light  and  graceful 
opera  at  its  best.  The  new  academician  was 
recompensed  for  the  public  indifference  by  the 
cordial  appreciation  which  connoisseurs  gave  this 
tasteful  and  scientific  production.  Another  comic 
opera,  "  Psyche,"  which  soon  appeared,  though 
full  of  witty  burlesque  and  humor  in  the  libretto, 
and  marked  by  delicious  melody  in  every  part, 
failed  to  please,  perhaps  on  account  of  the  pre- 
dominance of  feminine  roles,  and  the  absence  of 
a  good  tenor  part.  Still  a  third  comic  opera, 
the  "  Carnaval  de  Venise  "  saw  the  light  the  same 
season,  which  was  written  in  large  measure  to 
show  the  marvelous  flexibility  of  Mme.  Cabal's 
voice.  Very  few  singers  have  been  able  to  sing 
the  role  of  Sylvia,  who  warbles  a  violin  concerto 
from  beginning  to  end,  under  the  title  of  an 
"  Ariette  without  Words." 

Ambroise  Thomas  remained  silent  now  for 
half  a  dozen  years,  aside  from  the  composition  of 
a  few  charming  songs.  It  is  natural  to  suppose 
that  he  was  brooding  over  the  conception  of  his 


GOUNOD  AND  THOMAS.  253 

greatest  work,  which  was  next  to  see  the  light  of 
day,  and  add  one  more  to  the  great  operas  of  the 
world.  Such  compositions  are  not  hastily  manu- 
factured, but  grow  for  years  out  of  the  travail  of 
heart  and  brain,  deep  thought,  high  imaginings, 
passionate  sensibilities,  elaborately  wrought  by 
time  and  patience,  till  at  last  they  are  crystallized 
into  form. 

"  Mignon,"  a  comic  opera  in  three  acts,  was 
first  represented  at  the  Theatre  Lyrique,  on  No- 
vember 17,  1866,  before  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
and  enthusiastic  audiences  ever  gathered  in  Paris. 
Its  success  was  magnificent.  This  was  seven 
years  after  Gounod  had  made  such  a  great  stride 
among  the  composers  of  the  age,  by  the  produc- 
tion of  "  Faust "  ;  and  it  is  within  bounds  to  say 
that,  since  "  Faust,"  no  opera  had  been  produced 
in  Paris  so  vital  with  the  breath  of  genius  and 
great  purpose,  so  full  of  sentiment  and  poetry,  so 
symmetrical  and  balanced  in  its  differentiation  of 
music  measured  by  its  dramatic  value,  so  instant- 
ly and  splendidly  recognized  by  the  public,  cul- 
tured and  ignorant,  gentle  and  simple. 

Like  "  Faust,"  too,  the  opera  of  Thomas  was 
based  on  a  creation  of  Goethe.  Without  the  pa- 
thetic episode  of  "  Mignon,"  the  novel  of  "  Wil- 
helm  Meister"  would  lose  much  of  its  dramatic 
strength  and  quality.  Of  course,  every  libretto 
must  part  with  some  of  the  charm  of  the  story 
on  which  it  is  built ;  but  in  this  instance  the  au- 
17 


254  GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

thor  succeeds  in  preserving  nearly  all  the  intrin- 
sic worth  of  the  Mignon  episode.  The  music  is 
admirably  suited  to  a  noble  theme.  There  is  hard- 
ly a  weak  bar  in  it  from  beginning  to  end  ;  and 
some  of  the  work  here  done  by  the  composer  will 
compare  favorably  with  any  operatic  music  ever 
heard.  In  this  opera  melodic  phrase  goes  hand 
in  hand  with  character  and  motive,  and  Mignon, 
Philina,  Wilhelm  Meister,  and  Lothario,  are  dis- 
tinguished in  the  music  with  the  finest  dramatic 
discrimination. 

Among  the  operas  of  recent  years,  "  Mignon  " 
ranks  among  the  first  for  its  taste,  grace,  and 
poetry.  The  first  act  is  vigorous,  bright,  and 
picturesque ;  the  second,  touched  with  the  finest 
points  of  passion  and  humor ;  the  third  is  in- 
spired with  a  pathos  and  poetic  ardor  which  lift 
the  composer  to  do  his  most  magnificent  work. 
But  to  describe  "  Mignon  "  to  the  public  of  to- 
day, which  has  heard  it  almost  an  innumerable 
number  of  times,  is,  as  much  as  in  the  case  of 
Gounod's  "Faust,"  "carrying  coals  to  Newcas- 
tle." 

In  1868  Thomas  produced  "  Hamlet,"  and  it 
was  represented  at  the  Grand  Opera,  with  Mile. 
Christine  Nilsson  in  the  role  of  Ophelia,  the 
same  singer  having,  if  we  mistake  not,  created 
the  role  of  Mignon.  "  Hamlet,"  though  a  marked 
artistic  success,  has  failed  to  make  the  same  popu- 
lar impression  as  "Mignon,"  possibly  because  the 


BERLIOZ.  255 

theme  is  less  suited  to  operatic  treatment ;  for  the 
music  per  se  is  of  a  fine  type,  and  full  of  the  genu- 
ine accents  of  passion, 

In  addition  to  the  works  named  above,  Am- 
broise  Thomas  has  written  "  La  Gypsy,"  "  Le  Pa- 
nier  Fleuri,"  "Carline,"  "Le  Roman  d'Elvire," 
several  fine  masses,  many  beautiful  songs,  a  re- 
quiem, and  miscellaneous  church-pieces.  Thomas 
is  famous  in  France  for  the  generous  encourage- 
ment and  help  which  he  extends  to  all  young 
musicians,  assistance  which  his  position  in  the 
Paris  Conservatoire  helps  to  make  most  valuable. 
He  is  now  seventy-one  years  old,  and,  should  he 
add  nothing  more  to  the  musical  treasures  of  the 
present  generation,  much  of  what  he  has  already 
done  will  give  him  a  permanent  place  in  the  tem- 
ple of  lyric  music. 


BERLIOZ. 

i. 

IN  the  long  list  of  brilliant  names  which  have 
illustrated  the  fine  arts,  there  is  none  attached  to 
a  personality  more  interesting  and  impressive  than 
that  of  Hector  Berlioz.  He  stands  solitary,  a  co- 
lossus in  music,  with  but  few  admirers  and  fewer 
followers.  Original,  puissant  in  faculties,  fierce- 
ly dogmatic  and  intolerant,  bizarre,  his  influence 


256  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

has  impressed  itself  profoundly  on  the  musical 
world  both  for  good  and  evil,  but  has  failed  to 
make  disciples  or  to  rear  a  school.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  defects  and  extravagances  of  Berlioz,  it 
is  safe  to  assert  that  no  art  or  philosophy  can 
boast  of  an  example  of  more  perfect  devotion  to 
an  ideal.  The  startling  originality  of  Berlioz  as 
a  musician  rests  on  a  mental  and  emotional  or- 
ganization different  from  and  in  some  respecte 
superior  to  that  of  any  other  eminent  master.  He 
possessed  an  ardent  temperament  ;  a  gorgeous 
imagination,  that  knew  no  rest  in  its  working,  and 
at  times  became  heated  to  the  verge  of  madness  ; 
a  most  subtile  sense  of  hearing  ;  an  intellect  of 
the  keenest  analytic  turn  ;  a  most  arrogant  will, 
full  of  enterprise  and  daring,  which  clung  to  its 
purpose  with  unrelenting  tenacity  ;  and  passions 
of  such  heat  and  fervor  that  they  rarely  failed 
when  aroused  to  carry  him  beyond  all  bounds  of 
reason.  His  genius  was  unique,  his  character  cast 
in  the  mold  of  a  Titan,  his  life  a  tragedy.  Says 
Blaze  de  Bussy  :  "  Art  has  its  martyrs,  its  fore- 
runners crying  in  the  wilderness,  and  feeding  on 
roots.  It  has  also  its  spoiled  children  sated  with 
bonbons  and  dainties."  Berlioz  belongs  to  the 
former  of  these  classes,  and,  if  ever  a  prophet  lift- 
ed up  his  voice  with  a  vehement  and  incessant 
outcry,  it  was  he. 

Hector   Berlioz   was   born    on    December  11, 
1803,  at  Cote  Saint  Andre,  a  small  town  between 


BERLIOZ.  257 

Grenoble  and  Lyons.  His  father  was  an  excellent 
physician  of  more  than  ordinary  attainments,  and 
he  superintended  his  son's  studies  with  great  zeal 
in  the  hope  that  the  lad  would  also  become  an 
ornament  of  the  healing  profession.  But  young 
Hector,  though  an  excellent  scholar  in  other 
branches,  developed  a  special  aptitude  for  music, 
and  at  twelve  he  could  sing  at  sight,  and  play 
difficult  concertos  on  the  flute.  The  elder  re- 
garded music  only  as  a  graceful  ornament  to  life, 
and  in  no  wise  encouraged  his  son  in  thinking  of 
music  as  a  profession.  So  it  was  not  long  before 
Hector  found  his  attention  directed  to  anatomy, 
physiology,  osteology,  etc.  In  his  father's  libra- 
ry he  had  already  read  of  Gluck,  Haydn,  Mozart, 
etc.,  and  had  found  a  manuscript  score  of  an 
opera  which  he  had  committed  to  memory.  His 
soul  revolted  more  and  more  from  the  path  cut 
out  for  him.  "  Become  a  physician  !  "  he  cried, 
"  study  anatomy  ;  dissect ;  take  part  in  horrible 
operations  ?  No  !  no  !  That  would  be  a  total 
subversion  of  the  natural  course  of  my  life." 

But  parental  resolution  carried  the  day,  and, 
after  he  had  finished  the  preliminary  course  of 
study,  he  was  ordered  up  to  Paris  to  join  the 
army  of  medical  students.  So  at  the  age  of 
nineteen  we  find  him  lodged  in  the  Quartier 
Latin.  His  first  introduction  to  medical  studies 
had  been  unfortunate.  On  entering  a  dissect- 
ing-room he  had  been  so  convulsed  with  hor- 


258  GREAT  ITALIAN  AND  FRENCH  COMPOSERS. 

ror  as  to  leap  from  the  window,  and  rush  to  his 
lodgings  in  an  agony  of  dread  and  disgust,  whence 
he  did  not  emerge  for  twenty-four  hours.  At 
last,  however,  by  dint  of  habit  he  became  some- 
what used  to  the  disagreeable  facts  of  his  new 
life,  and,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  bade  fair  to  add 
one  more  to  the  army  of  bad  physicians,"  when 
he  went  to  the  opera  one  night  and  heard  "  Les 
Dana'ides,"  Salieri's  opera,  performed  with  all 
the  splendid  completeness  of  the  Academie  Roy- 
ale.  This  awakened  into  fresh  life  an  unquench- ' 
able  thirst  for  music,  and  he  neglected  bis  medical 
studies  for  the  library  of  the  Conservatoire,  where 
he  learned  by  heart  the  scores  of  Gluck  and  Ra- 
meau.  At  last,  on  coming  out  one  night  from  a 
performance  of  "  Iphigenie,"  he  swore  that  hence- 
forth music  should  have  her  divine  rights  of 
him,  in  spite  of  all  and  everything.  Henceforth 
hospital,  dissecting-room,  and  professor's  lectures 
knew  him  no  more. 

But  to  get  admission  to  the  Conservatoire  was 
now  the  problem  ;  Berlioz  set  to  work  on  a  can- 
tata with  orchestral  accompaniments,  and  in  the 
mean  time  sent  the  most  imploring  letters  home 
asking  his  father's  sanction  for  this  change  of  life. 
The  inexorable  parent  replied  by  cutting  off  his 
son's  allowance,  saying  that  he  would  not  help 
him  to  become  one  of  the  miserable  herd  of  un- 
successful musicians.  The  young  enthusiast's 
cantata  gained  him  admission  to  the  classes  of  Le 


BERLIOZ.  259 

Sueur  and  Reicha  at  the  Conservatoire,  hut  alas  ! 
dire  poverty  stared  him  in  the  face.  The  history 
of  his  shifts  and  privations  for  some  months  is  a 
sad  one.  He  slept  in  an  old,  unfurnished  garret, 
and  shivered  under  insufficient  bedclothing,  ate 
his  bread  and  grapes  on  the  Pont  Neuf,  and 
sometimes  debated  whether  a  plunge  into  the 
Seine  would  not  be  the  easiest  way  out  of  it  all. 
No  mongrel  cur  in  the  capital  but  had  a  sweeter 
bone  to  crunch  than  he.  But  the  young  fellow 
for  all  this  stuck  to  his  work  with  dogged  te- 
nacity, managed  to  get  a  mass  performed  at  St. 
Roch  church,  and  soon  finished  the  score  of  an 
opera,  "  Les  Francs  Juges."  Flesh  and  blood 
would  have  given  way  at  last  under  this  hard 
diet,  if  he  had  not  obtained  a  position  in  the 
chorus  of  the  Theatre  des  Noveauteaus.  Berlioz 
gives  an  amusing  account  of  his  going  to  compete 
with  the  horde  of  applicants — butchers,  bakers, 
shop-apprentices,  etc. — each  one  with  his  roll  of 
music  under  his  arm. 

The  manager  scanned  the  raw-boned  starve- 
ling with  a  look  of  wonder.  "  Where's  your 
music  ?  "  quoth  the  tyrant  of  a  third-class  thea- 
tre. "  I  don't  want  any,  I  can  sing  anything  you 
can  give  me  at  sight,"  was  the  answer.  "  The 
devil !  "  rejoined  the  manager  ;  "  but  we  haven't 
any  music  here."  "Well,  what  do  you  want?" 
said  Berlioz.  "  I  sing  every  note  of  all  the  operas 
of  Gluck,  Piccini,  Salieri,  Rameau,  Spontini,  Gre- 


260  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

try,  Mozart,  and  Cimarosa,  from  memory."  At 
hearing  this  amazing  declaration,  the  rest  of  the 
competitors  slunk  away  abashed,  and  Berlioz, 
after  singing  an  aria  from  Spontini,  was  accorded 
the  place,  which  guaranteed  him  fifty  francs  per 
month — a  pittance,  indeed,  and  yet  a  substantial 
addition  to  his  resources.  This  pot-boiling  con- 
nection of  Berlioz  was  never  known  to  the  public 
till  after  he  became  a  distinguished  man,  though 
he  was  accustomed  to  speak  in  vague  terms  of  his 
early  dramatic  career  as  if  it  were  a  matter  of 
romantic  importance. 

At  last,  however,  he  was  relieved  of  the  ne- 
cessity of  singing  on  the  stage  to  amuse  the  Paris 
bourgeoisie,  and  in  a  singular  fashion.  He  had 
been  put  to  great  straits  to  get  his  first  work, 
which  had  won  him  his  way  into  the  Conservatoire, 
performed.  An  application  to  the  great  Chateau- 
briand, who  was  noted  for  benevolence,  had  failed, 
for  the  author  of  "  La  Genie  de  Christianisme " 
was  then  almost  as  poor  as  Berlioz.  At  last  a 
young  friend,  De  Pons,  advanced  him  twelve 
hundred  francs.  Part  of  this  Berlioz  had  re- 
paid, but  the  creditor,  put  to  it  for  money,  wrote 
to  Berlioz  pere,  demanding  a  full  settlement  of 
the  debt.  The  father  was  thus  brought  again 
into  communication  with  his  son,  whom  he  found 
nearly  sick  unto  death  with  a  fever.  His  heart 
relented,  and  the  old  allowance  was  resumed  again, 
enabling  the  young  musician  to  give  his  whole 


BERLIOZ.  261 

time  to  his  beloved  art,  instantly  he  convalesced 
from  his  illness. 

The  eccentric  ways  and  heretical  notions  of 
Berlioz  made  him  no  favorite  with  the  dons  of 
the  Conservatoire,  and  by  the  irritable  and  auto- 
cratic Cherubini  he  was  positively  hated.  The 
young  man  took  no  pains  to  placate  this  resent- 
ment, but  on  the  other  hand  elaborated— methods 
of  making  himself  doubly  offensive.  His  power 
of  stinging  repartee  stood  him  in  good  stead,  and 
he  never  put  a  button  on  his  foil.  Had  it  been 
in  old  Cherubini's  power  to  expel  this  bold  pupil 
from  the  Conservatoire,  no  scruple  would  have 
held  him  back.  But  the  genius  and  industry  of 
Berlioz  were  undeniable,  and  there  was  no  ex- 
cuse for  such  extreme  measures.  Prejudiced  as 
were  his  judges,  he  successively  took  several  im- 
portant prizes. 

ii. 

BERLIOZ'S  happiest  evenings  were  at  the 
Grand  Opera,  for  which  he  prepared  himself  by 
solemn  meditation.  At  the  head  of  a  band  of 
students  and  amateurs,  he  took  on  himself  the 
right  of  the  most  outspoken  criticism,  and  led  the 
enthusiasm  or  the  condemnation  of  the  audience. 
At  this  time  Beethoven  was  barely  tolerated  in 
Paris,  and  the  great  symphonist  was  ruthlessly 
clipped  and  shorn  to  suit  the  French  taste,  which 
pronounced  him  "bizarre,  incoherent,  diffuse, 


262  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND  FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

bustling  with  rough  modulations  and  wild  har- 
monies, destitute  of  melody,  forced  in  expres- 
sion, noisy,  and  fearfully  difficult,"  even  as  Eng- 
land at  the  same  time  frowned  down  his  immortal 
works  as  "  obstreperous  roarings  of  modern  fren- 
zy." Berlioz's  clear,  stern  voice  would  often  be 
heard,  when  liberties  were  taken  with  the  score, 
loud  above  the  din  of  the  instruments.  "  What 
wretch  has  dared  to  tamper  with  the  great  Beet- 
hoven ? "  "  Who  has  taken  upon  him  to  revise 
Gluck  ?  "  This  self-appointed  arbiter  became  the 
dread  of  the  operatic  management,  for,  as  a  pupil 
of  the  Conservatoire,  he  had  some  rights  which 
could  not  be  infringed. 

Berlioz  composed  some  remarkable  works 
while  at  the  Conservatoire,  among  which  were 
the  "  Ouverture  des  Francs  Juges,"  and  the  sym- 
phonic "  Fantastique,"  and  in  many  ways  indi- 
cated that  the  bent  of  his  genius  had  fully  de- 
clared itself.  His  decided  and  indomitable  nature 
disdained  to  wear  a  mask,  and  he  never  sugar- 
coated  his  opinion,  however  unpalatable  to  others. 
He  was  already  in  a  state  of  fierce  revolt  against 
the  conventional  forms  of  the  music  of  his  day, 
and  no  trumpet-tones  of  protest  were  too  loud 
for  him.  He  had  now  begun  to  write  for  the 
journals,  though  oftentimes  his  articles  were  re- 
fused on  account  of  their  fierce  assaults.  "  Your 
hands  are  too  full  of  stones,  and  there  are  too 
many  glass  windows  about,"  was  the  excuse  of 


BERLIOZ.  263 

one  editor,  softening  the  return  of  a  manuscript. 
But  Berlioz  did  not  fully  know  himself  or  appre- 
ciate the  tendencies  fermenting  within  him  until 
in  1830  he  became  the  victim  of  a  grand  Shake- 
spearean passion.  The  great  English  dramatist 
wrought  most  powerfully  on  Victor  Hugo  and 
Hector  Berlioz,  and  had  much  to  do  with  their 
artistic  development.  Berlioz  gives  a  very  in- 
teresting account  of  his  Shakespearean  enthu- 
siasm, which  also  involved  one  of  the  catastrophes 
of  his  own  personal  life.  "  An  English  company 
gave  some  plays  of  Shakespeare,  at  that  time 
wholly  unknown  to  the  French  public.  I  went  to 
the  first  performance  of  '  Hamlet '  at  the  Odeon. 
I  saw,  in  the  part  of  Ophelia,  Harriet  Smithson, 
who  became  my  wife  five  years  afterward.  The 
effect  of  her  prodigious  talent,  or  rather  of  her 
dramatic  genius,  upon  my  heart  and  imagination, 
is  only  comparable  to  the  complete  overturning 
which  the  poet,  whose  worthy  interpreter  she  was, 
caused  in  me.  Shakespeare,  thus  coming  on  me 
suddenly,  struck  me  as  with  a  thunderbolt.  His 
lightning  opened  the  heaven  of  art  to  me  with  a 
sublime  crash,  and  lighted  up  its  farthest  depths. 
I  recognized  true  dramatic  grandeur,  beauty,  and 
truth.  I  measured  at  the  same  time  the  boundless 
inanity  of  the  notions  of  Shakespeare  in  France, 
spread  abroad  by  Voltaire. 

'.  .  .  ce  singe  de  genie, 
Chez  1'homme  en  mission  par  le  diable  envoy6 — ' 


264  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

(that  ape  of  genius,  an  emissary  from  the  devil  to 
man),'  and  the  pitiful  poverty  of  our  old  poetry 
of  pedagogues  and  ragged-school  teachers.  I 
saw,  I  understood,  I  felt  that  I  was  alive  and 
must  arise  and  walk."  Of  the  influence  of  "Ro- 
meo and  Juliet "  on  him,  he  says  :  "  Exposing 
myself  to  the  burning  sun  and  balmy  nights  of 
Italy,  seeing  this  love  as  quick  and  sudden  as 
thought,  burning  like  lava,  imperious,  irresistible, 
boundless,  and  pure  and  beautiful  as  the  smile  of 
angels,  those  furious  scenes  of  vengeance,  those 
distracted  embraces,  those  struggles  between  love 
and  death,  was  too  much.  After  the  melancholy, 
the  gnawing  anguish,  the  tearful  love,  the  cruel 
irony,  the  somber  meditations,  the  heart-rackings, 
the  madness,  tears,  mourning,  the  calamities  and 
sharp  cleverness  of  Hamlet ;  after  the  gray  clouds 
and  icy  winds  of  Denmark  ;  after  the  third  act, 
hardly  breathing,  in  pain  as  if  a  hand  of  iron 
were  squeezing  at  my  heart,  I  said  to  myself  with 
the  fullest  conviction  :  '  Ah  !  I  am  lost.'  I  must 
add  that  I  did  not  at  that  time  know  a  word  of 
English,  that  I  only  caught  glimpses  of  Shake- 
speare through  the  fog  of  Letourneur's  transla- 
tion, and  that  I  consequently  could  not  perceive 
the  poetic  web  that  surrounds  his  marvelous  crea- 
tions like  a  net  of  gold.  I  have  the  misfortune 
to  be  very  nearly  in  the  same  sad  case  to-day. 
It  is  much  harder  for  a  Frenchman  to  sound  the 
depths  of  Shakespeare  than  for  an  Englishman 


BERLIOZ.  265 

to  feel  the  delicacy  and  originality  of  La  Fon- 
taine or  Moliere.  Our  two  poets  are  rich  conti- 
nents ;  Shakespeare  is  a  world.  But  the  play  of 
the  actors,  above  all  of  the  actress,  the  succession 
of  the  scenes,  the  pantomime  and  the  accent  of  the 
voices,  meant  more  to  me,  and  filled  me  a  thou- 
sand times  more  with  Shakespearean  ideas  and  pas- 
sion than  the  text  of  my  colorless  and  unfaithful 
translation.  An  English  critic  said  last  winter 
in  the  'Illustrated  London  News,'  that,  after 
seeing  Miss  Smithson  in  Juliet,  I  had  cried  out, 
'  I  will  marry  that  woman  and  write  my  grandest 
symphony  on  this  play.'  I  did  both,  but  never 
said  anything  of  the  sort." 

The  beautiful  Miss  Smithson  became  the  rage, 
the  inspiration  of  poets  and  painters,  the  idol  of 
the  hour,  at  whose  feet  knelt  all  the  roues  and 
rich  idlers  of  the  town.  Delacroix  painted  her 
as  the  Ophelia  of  his  celebrated  picture,  and  the 
English  company  made  nearly  as  much  sensa- 
tion in  Paris  as  the  Comedie  Frangaise  recently 
aroused  in  London.  Berlioz's  mind,  perturbed 
and  inflamed  with  the  mighty  images  of  the 
Shakespearean  world,  swept  with  wide,  powerful 
passion  toward  Shakespeare's  interpreter.  He 
raged  and  stormed  with  his  accustomed  vehe- 
mence, made  no  secret  of  his  infatuation,  and 
walked  the  streets  at  night,  calling  aloud  the 
name  of  the  enchantress,  and  cooling  his  heated 
brows  with  many  a  sigh.  He,  too,  would  prove 


266  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

that  he  was  a  great  artist,  and  his  idol  should 
know  that  she  had  no  unworthy  lover.  He  would 
give  a  concert,  and  Miss  Smithson  should  be  pres- 
ent by  hook  or  by  crook.  He  went  to  Cherubim 
and  asked  permission  to  use  the  great  hall  of  the 
Conservatoire,  but  was  churlishly  refused.  Berlioz 
however,  managed  to  secure  the  concession  over 
the  head  of  Cherubini,  and  advertised  his  concert. 
He  went  to  large  expense  in  copyists,  orchestra, 
solo-singers,  and  chorus,  and,  when  the  night 
came,  was  almost  fevered  with  expectation.  But 
the  concert  was  a  failure,  and  the  adored  one  was 
not  there  ;  she  had  not  even  heard  of  it !  The  dis- 
appointment nearly  laid  the  young  composer  on 
a  bed  of  sickness  ;  but,  if  he  oscillated  between  de- 
liriums of  hope  and  despair,  his  powerful  will  was 
also  full  of  elasticity,  and  not  for  long  did  he 
even  rave  in  the  utter  ebb  of  disappointment. 
Throughout  the  whole  of  his  life,  Berlioz  dis- 
played this  swiftness  of  recoil  ;  one  moment 
crazed  with  grief  and  depression,  the  next  he 
would  bend  to  his  labor  with  a  cool,  steady  fixed- 
ness of  purpose,  which  would  sweep  all  interfer- 
ences aside  like  cobwebs.  But  still,  night  after 
night,  he  would  haunt  the  Odeon,  and  drink  in 
the  sights  and  sounds  of  the  magic  world  of 
Shakespeare,  getting  fresh  inspiration -nightly 
for  his  genius  and  love.  If  he  paid  dearly  for 
this  rich  intellectual  acquaintance  by  his  passion 
for  La  Belle  Smithson,  he  yet  gained  impulses 


BERLIOZ.  267 

and  suggestions  for  his  imagination,  ravenous  of 
new  impressions,  which  wrought  deeply  and  per- 
manently. Had  Berlioz  known  the  outcome,  he 
would  not  have  bartered  for  immunity  by  losing 
the  jewels  and  ingots  of  the  Shakespeare  treas- 
ure-house. 

The  year  1830  was  for  Berlioz  one  of  alter- 
nate exaltation  and  misery  ;  of  struggle,  priva- 
tion, disappointment ;  of  all  manner  of  torments 
inseparable  from  such  a  volcanic  temperament 
and  restless  brain.  But  he  had  one  consolation 
which  gratified  his  vanity.  He  gained  the  Prix 
de  Rome  by  his  cantata  of  "  Sardanapalus." 
This  honor  had  a  practical  value  also.  It  secured 
him  an  annuity  of  three  thousand  francs  for  a 
period  of  five  years,  and  two  years'  residence  in 
Italy.  Berlioz  would  never  let  "  well  enough  " 
alone,  however.  He  insisted  on  adding  an  or- 
chestral part  to  the  completed  score,  describing 
the  grand  conflagration  of  the  palace  of  Sarda- 
napalus. When  the  work  was  produced,  it  was 
received  with  a  howl  of  sarcastic  derision,  owing 
to  the  latest  whim  of  the  composer.  So  Berlioz 
started  for  Italy,  smarting  with  rage  and  pain,  as 
if  the  Furies  were  lashing  him  with  their  scorpion 
whips. 

in. 

THE  pensioners  of  the  Conservatoire  lived  at 
Rome  in  the  Villa  Medici,  and  the  illustrious 
painter,  Horace  Vernet,  was  the  director,  though 


268  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

he  exercised  but  little  supervision  over  the  stud- 
ies of  the  young  men  under  his  nominal  charge. 
Berlioz  did  very  much  as  he  pleased — studied 
little  or  much  as  the  whim  seized  him,  visited  the 
churches,  studios,  and  picture-galleries,  and  spent 
no  little  of  his  time  by  starlight  and  sunlight  roam- 
ing about  the  country  adjacent  to  the  Holy  City 
in  search  of  adventures.  He  had  soon  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  he  had  not  much  to  learn  of 
Italian  music  ;  that  he  could  teach  rather  than 
be  taught.  He  speaks  of  Roman  art  with  the 
bitterest  scorn,  and  Wagner  himself  never  made 
a  more  savage  indictment  of  Italian  music  than 
does  Berlioz  in  his  "  Memoires."  At  the  theatres 
he  found  the  orchestra,  dramatic  unity,  and  com- 
mon-sense all  sacrificed  to  mere  vocal  display. 
At  St.  Peter's  and  the  Sistine  Chapel  religious 
earnestness  and  dignity  were  frittered  away  in 
pretty  part-singing,  in  mere  frivolity  and  mere- 
tricious show.  The  word  "  symphony  "  was  not 
known  except  to  indicate  an  indescribable  noise 
before  the  rising  of  the  curtain.  Nobody  had 
heard  of  Weber  and  Beethoven,  and  Mozart,  dead 
more  than  a  score  of  years,  was  mentioned  by  a 
well-known  musical  connoisseur  as  a  young  man 
of  great  promise  !  Such  surroundings  as  these 
were  a  species  of  purgatory  to  Berlioz,  against 
whose  bounds  he  fretted  and  raged  without  inter- 
mission. The  director's  receptions  were  signal- 
ized by  the  performance  of  insipid  cavatinas,  and 


BERLIOZ.  269 

from  these,  as  from  his  companions'  revels  in 
which  he  would  sometimes  indulge  with  the  mad- 
dest debauchery  as  if  to  kill  his  own  thoughts, 
he  would  escape  to  wander  in  the  majestic  ruins 
of  the  Coliseum  and  see  the  magic  Italian  moon- 
light shimmer  through  its  broken  arches,  or  stroll 
on  the  lonely  Campagna  till  his  clothes  were 
drenched  with  dew.  No  fear  of  the  deadly 
Roman  malaria  could  check  his  restless  excur- 
sions, for,  like  a  fiery  horse,  he  was  irritated  to 
madness  by  the  inaction  of  his  life.  To  him  the 
dolce  far  niente  was  a  meaningless  phrase.  His 
comrades  scoffed  at  him  and  called  him  "  fere  la 
Joie"  in  derision  of  the  fierce  melancholy  which 
despised  them,  their  pursuits  and  pleasures. 

At  the  end  of  the  year  he  was  obliged  to 
present  something  before  the  Institute  as  a  mark 
of  his  musical  advancement,  and  he  sent  on  a 
fragment  of  his  "  Mass "  heard  years  before  at 
St.  Roch,  in  which  the  wise  judges  professed  to 
find  the  "evidences  of  material  advancement, 
and  the  total  abandonment  of  his  former  repre- 
hensible tendencies."  One  can  fancy  the  scorn- 
ful laughter  of  Berlioz  at  hearing  this  verdict. 
But  his  Italian  life  was  not  altogether  purpose- 
less. He  revised  his  "  Symphonie  Fantastique," 
and  wrote  its  sequel,  "  Lelio,"  a  lyrical  mono- 
logue, in  which  he  aimed  to  express  the  memo- 
ries of  his  passion  for  the  beautiful  Miss  Smith- 
son.  These  two  parts  comprised  what  Berlioz 
18 


270  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

named  "  An  Episode  in  the  Life  of  an  Artist." 
Our  composer  managed  to  get  the  last  six  months 
of  his  Italian  exile  remitted,  and  his  return  to 
Paris  was  hastened  by  one  of  those  furious  par- 
oxysms of  rage  to  which  such  ill-regulated  minds 
are  subject.  He  had  adored  Miss  Smithson  as  a 
celestial  divinity,  a  lovely  ideal  of  art  and  beauty, 
but  this  had  not  prevented  him  from  basking  in 
the  rays  of  the  earthly  Venus.  Before  leaving 
Paris  he  had  had  an  intrigue  with  a  certain  Mile. 

M ,  a  somewhat  frivolous  and  unscrupulous 

beauty,  who  had  bled  his  not  overfilled  purse 
with  the  avidity  of  a  leech.  Berlioz  heard  just 
before  returning  to  Paris  that  the  coquette  was 
about  to  marry,  a  conclusion  one  would  fancy 
which  would  have  rejoiced  his  mind.  But,  no  ! 
he  was  worked  to  a  dreadful  rage  by  what  he 
considered  such  perfidy  !  His  one  thought  was 
to  avenge  himself.  He  provided  himself  with 
three  loaded  pistols — one  for  the  faithless  one, 
one  for  his  rival,  and  one  for  himself — and  was  so 
impatient  to  start  that  he  could  not  wait  for  pass- 
ports. He  attempted  to  cross  the  frontier  in 
women's  clothes,  and  was  arrested.  A  variety 
of  contretemps  occurred  before  he  got  to  Paris, 
and  by  that  time  his  rage  had  so  cooled,  his  sense 
of  the  absurdity  of  the  whole  thing  grown  so 
keen,  that  he  was  rather  willing  to  send  Mile. 

M his  blessing  than  his  curse. 

About    the    time    of    Berlioz's    arrival,    Miss 


BERLIOZ.  271 

Smitlison  also  returned  to  Paris  after  a  long 
absence,  with  the  intent  of  undertaking  the  man- 
agement of  an  English  theatre.  It  was  a  neces- 
sity of  our  composer's  nature  to  be  in  love,  and 
the  flames  of  his  ardor,  fed  with  fresh  fuel, 
blazed  up  again  from  their  old  ashes.  Berlioz 
gave  a  concert,  in  which  his  "  Episode  in  the  Life 
of  an  Artist "  was  interpreted  in  connection  with 
the  recitations  of  the  text.  The  explanations  of 
"  Lelio  "  so  unmistakably  pointed  to  the  feeling 
of  the  composer  for  herself,  that  Miss  Smitlison, 
who  by  chance  was  present,  could  not  be  de- 
ceived, though  she  never  yet  had  seen  Berlioz. 
A  few  days  afterward  a  benefit  concert  was  ar- 
ranged, in  which  Miss  Smithson's  troupe  was  to 
take  part,  as  well  as  Berlioz,  who  was  to  direct  a 
symphony  of  his  own  composition.  At  the  re- 
hearsal, the  looks  of  Berlioz  followed  Miss  Smith- 
son  with  such  an  intent  stare,  that  she  said  to 
some  one,  "  Who  is  that  man  whose  eyes  bode 
me  no  good  ? "  This  was  the  first  occasion  of 
their  personal  meeting,  and  it  may  be  fancied 
that  Berlioz  followed  up  the  introduction  with  his 
accustomed  vehemence  and  pertinacity,  though 
without  immediate  effect,  for  Miss  Smithson  was 
more  inclined  to  fear  than  to  love  him. 

The  young  directress  soon  found  out  that  the 
rage  for  Shakespeare,  which  had  swept  the  public 
mind  under  the  influence  of  the  romanticism  led  by 
Victor  Hugo,  Dumas,  Theophile  Gautier,  Balzac} 


272  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

and  others,  was  spurious.  The  wave  had  been 
frothing  but  shallow,  and  it  ebbed  away,  leaving 
the  English  actress  and  her  enterprise  gasping  for 
life.  With  no  deeper  tap-root  than  the  Gallic 
love  of  novelty  and  the  infectious  enthusiasm  of 
a  few  men  of  great  genius,  the  Shakespearean 
mania  had  a  short  life,  and  Frenchmen  shrugged 
their  shoulders  over  their  own  folly,  in  temporari- 
ly preferring  the  English  barbarian  to  Racine,  Cor- 
neille,  and  Moliere.  The  letters  of  Berlioz,  in 
which  he  scourges  the  fickleness  of  his  country- 
men in  returning  again  to  their  "  false  gods,"  are 
masterpieces  of  pointed  invective. 

Miss  Smithson  was  speedily  involved  in  great 
pecuniary  difficulty,  and,  to  add  to  her  misfortunes, 
she  fell  down  stairs  and  broke  her  leg,  thus  pre- 
cluding her  own  appearance  on  the  stage.  Affairs 
were  in  this  desperate  condition,  when  Berlioz 
came  to  the  fore  with  a  delicate  and  manly  chiv- 
alry worthy  of  the  highest  praise.  He  offered 
to  pay  Miss  Smitlison's  debts,  though  a  poor  man 
himself,  and  to  marry  her  without  delay.  The 
ceremony  took  place  immediately,  and  thus  com- 
menced a  connection  which  hampered  and  retarded 
Berlioz's  career,  as  well  as  caused  him  no  little 
personal  unhappiness.  He  speedily  discovered  that 
his  wife  was  a  woman  of  fretful,  imperious  tem- 
per, jealous  of  mere  shadows  (though  Berlioz  was 
a  man  to  give  her  substantial  cause),  and  totally 
lacking  in  sympathy  with  his  high-art  ideals. 


BERLIOZ.  273 

When  Mme.  Berlioz  recovered,  it  was  to  find  her- 
self unable  longer  to  act,  as  her  leg  was  stiff  and 
her  movements  unsuited  to  the  exigencies  of  the 
stage.  Poor  Berlioz  was  crushed  by  the  weight 
of  the  obligations  he  had  assumed,  and,  as  the 
years  went  on,  the  peevish  plaints  of  an  invalid 
wife,  who  had  lost  her  beauty  and  power  of 
charming,  withered  the  affection  which  had  once 
been  so  fervid  and  passionate.  Berlioz  finally 
separated  from  his  once  beautiful  and  worshiped 
Harriet  Smithson,  but  to  the  very  last  supplied 
her  wants  as  fully  as  he  could  out  of  the  meager 
earnings  of  his  literary  work  and  of  musical  com- 
positions, which  the  Paris  public,  for  the  most 
part,  did  not  care  to  listen  to.  For  his  son,  Louis, 
the  only  offspring  of  this  union,  Berlioz  felt  a 
devoted  affection,  and  his  loss  at  sea  in  after- 
years  was  a  blow  that  nearly  broke  his  heart. 

IV. 

OWING  to  the  unrelenting  hostility  of  Cheru 
bini,  Berlioz  failed  to  secure  a  professorship  at 
the  Conservatoire,  a  place  to  which  he  was  nobly 
entitled,  and  was  fain  to  take  up  with  the  posi- 
tion of  librarian  instead.  The  paltry  wage  he 
eked  out  by  journalistic  writing,  for  the  most 
part  as  musical  critic  of  the  "Journal  des  De- 
bats,"  by  occasional  concerts,  revising  proofs,  in 
a  word  anything  which  a  versatile  and  desperate 
Bohemian  could  turn  his  hand  to.  In  fact,  for 


274  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

many  years  the  main  subsistence  of  Berlioz  was 
derived  from  fcuilleton-writing  and  the  labors  of 
a  critic.  His  prose  is  so  witty,  brilliant,  fresh,  and 
epigrammatic  that  he  would  have  been  known  to 
posterity  as  a  clever  litterateur,  had  he  not  pre- 
ferred to  remain  merely  a  great  musician.  Dra- 
matic, picturesque,  and  subtile,  with  an  admirable 
sense  of  art-form,  he  could  have  become  a  power- 
ful dramatist,  perhaps  a  great  novelist.  But  his 
soul,  all  whose  aspirations  set  toward  one  goal, 
revolted  from  the  labors  of  literature,  still  more 
from  the  daily  grind  of  journalistic  drudgery. 
In  that  remarkable  book,  "Memoires  do  Hector 
Berlioz,"  he  has  made  known  his  misery,  and 
thus  recounts  one  of  his  experiences  :  "  I  stood 
at  the  window  gazing  into  the  gardens,  at  the 
heights  of  Montmartre,  at  the  setting  sun  ;  reverie 
bore  me  a  thousand  leagues  from  my  accursed 
comic  opera.  And  when,  on  turning,  my  eyes 
fell  upon  the  accursed  title  at  the  head  of  the 
accursed  sheet,  blank  still,  and  obstinately  await- 
ing my  word,  despair  seized  upon  me.  My  gui- 
tar rested  against  the  table  ;  with  a  kick  I 
crushed  its  side.  Two  pistols  on  the  mantel 
stared  at  me  with  great  round  eyes.  I  re- 
garded them  for  some  time,  then  beat  my  fore- 
head with  clinched  hand.  At  last  I  wept  furi- 
ously, like  a  schoolboy  unable  to  do  his  theme. 
The  bitter  tears  were  a  relief.  T  turned  the  pis- 
tols toward  the  wall  ;  I  pitied  my  innocent  gui- 


BERLIOZ.  275 

tar,  and  sought  a  few  chords,  which  were  given 
without  resentment.  Just  then  rny  son  of  six 
years  knocked  at  the  door  [the  little  Louis  whose 
death,  years  after,  was  the  last  bitter  drop  in  the 
composer's  cup  of  life]  ;  owing  to  my  ill-humor, 
I  had  unjustly  scolded  him  that  morning.  *  Pa- 
pa,' he  cried,  '  wilt  thou  be  friends ? '  'I  will  be 
friends  ;  come  on,  my  boy ' ;  and  I  ran  to  open 
the  door.  I  took  him  on  my  knee,  and,  with  his 
blonde  head  on  my  breast,  we  slept  together.  .  .  . 
Fifteen  years  since  then,  and  my  torment  still  en- 
dures. Oh,  to  be  always  there  ! — scores  to  write, 
orchestras  to  lead,  rehearsals  to  direct.  Let  me 
stand  all  day  with  baton  in  hand,  training  a  cho- 
rus, singing  their  parts  myself,  and  beating  the 
measure  until  I  spit  blood,  and  cramp  seizes  my 
arm  ;  let  me  carry  desks,  double  basses,  harps, 
remove  platforms,  nail  planks  like  a  porter  or  a 
carpenter,  and  then  spend  the  night  in  rectifying 
the  errors  of  engravers  or  copyists.  I  have  done, 
do,  and  will  do  it.  That  belongs  to  my  musical 
life,  and  I  bear  it  without  thinking  of  it,  as  the 
hunter  bears  the  thousand  fatigues  of  the  chase. 
But  to  scribble  eternally  for  a  livelihood — !  " 

It  may  be  fancied  that  such  a  man  as  Berlioz 
did  not  spare  the  lash,  once  he  griped  the  whip- 
handle,  and,  though  no  man  was  more  generous 
than  he  in  recognizing  and  encouraging  genuine 
merit,  there  was  none  more  relentless  in  scourging 
incompetency,  pretentious  commonplace,  and  the 


276  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

blind  conservatism  which  rests  all  its  faith  in 
what  has  been.  Our  composer  made  more  than 
one  powerful  enemy  by  this  recklessness  in  tell- 
ing the  truth,  where  a  more  politic  man  would 
have  gained  friends  strong  to  help  in  time  of 
need.  But  Berlioz  was  too  bitter  and  reckless,  as 
well  as  too  proud,  to  debate  consequences. 

In  1838  Berlioz  completed  his  "Benvenuto 
Cellini,"  his  only  attempt  at  opera  since  "Les 
Francs  Juges,"  and,  wonderful  to  say,  managed 
to  get  it  done  at  the  opera,  though  the  director, 
Duponchel,  laughed  at  him  as  a  lunatic,  and  the 
whole  company  already  regarded  the  work  as 
damned  in  advance.  The  result  was  a  most  dis- 
astrous and  eclatant  failure,  and  it  would  have 
crushed  any  man  whose  moral  backbone  was  not 
forged  of  thrice-tempered  steel.  With  all  these 
back-sets  Hector  Berlioz  was  not  without  encour- 
agement. The  brilliant  Franz  Liszt,  one  of  the 
musical  idols  of  the  age,  had  bowed  before  him  and 
called  him  master,  the  great  musical  protagonist. 
Spontini,  one  of  the  most  successful  composers  of 
the  time,  held  him  in  affectionate  admiration,  and 
always  bade  him  be  of  good  cheer.  Paganini,  the 
greatest  of  violinists,  had  hailed  him  as  equal  to 
Beethoven. 

On  the  night  of  the  failure  of  "Benvenuto 
Cellini,"  a  strange-looking  man  with  disheveled 
black  hair  and  eyes  of  piercing  brilliancy  had 
forced  his  way  around  into  the  green-room,  and, 


BERT.IOZ.  277 

seeking  out  Berlioz,  <\  fallen  on  his  knees  be- 
fore him  and  kissed  hu,  hand  passionately.  Then 
he  threw  his  arms  around  him  and  hailed  the 
astonished  composer  as  the  master-spirit  of  the 
age  in  terms  of  glowing  eulogium.  The  next 
morning,  while  Berlioz  was  in  bed,  there  was  a 
tap  at  the  door,  and  Paganini's  son,  Achille,  en- 
tered with  a  note,  saying  his  father  was  sick,  or 
he  would  have  come  to  pay  his  respects  in  person. 
On  opening  the  note  Berlioz  found  a  most  com- 
plimentary letter,  and  a  more  substantial  evidence 
of  admiration,  a  check  on  Baron  Rothschild  for 
twenty  thousand  francs  !  Paganini  also  gave 
Berlioz  a  commission  to  write  a  concerto  for  his 
Stradivarius  viola,  which  resulted  in  a  grand  sym- 
phony, "Harold  en  Italie,"  founded  on  Byron's 
"  Childe  Harold,"  but  still  more  an  inspiration  of 
his  own  Italian  adventures,  which  had  had  a 
strong  flavor  of  personal  if  they  lacked  artistic 
interest. 

The  generous  gift  of  Paganini  raised  Berlioz 
from  the  slough  of  necessity  so  far  that  he  could 
give  his  whole  time  to  music.  Instantly  he  set 
about  his  "  Romeo  and  Juliet  "  symphony,  which 
will  always  remain  one  of  his  masterpieces — a 
beautifully  chiseled  work,  from  the  hands  of  one 
inspired  by  gratitude,  unfettered  imagination, 
and  the  sense  of  blessed  repose.  Our  composer's 
first  musical  journey  was  an  extensive  tour  in 
Germany  in  1841,  of  which  he  gives  charming 


278  GREAT   ITALIAN  AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

memorials  in  his  letters  to  Liszt,  Heine,  Ernst, 
and  others.  His  reception  was  as  generous  and 
sympathetic  as  it  had  been  cold  and  scornful  in 
France.  Everywhere  he  was  honored  and  praised 
as  one  of  the  great  men  of  the  age.  Mendelssohn 
exchanged  batons  with  him  at  Leipsic,  notwith- 
standing the  former  only  half  understood  this 
stalwart  Berserker  of  music.  Spohr  called  him 
one  of  the  greatest  artists  living,  though  his  own 
direct  antithesis,  and  Schumann  wrote  glowingly 
in  the  "  Neue  Zeitschrift "  :  "  For  myself,  Berlioz 
is  as  clear  as  the  blue  sky  above.  I  really  think 
there  is  a  new  time  in  music  coming."  Berlioz 
wrote  joyfully  to  Heine  :  "  I  came  to  Germany  as 
the  men  of  ancient  Greece  went  to  the  oracle  at 
Delphi,  and  the  response  has  been  in  the  highest 
degree  encoiiraging."  But  his  Germanic  laurels 
did  him  no  good  in  France.  The  Parisians  would 
have  none  of  him  except  as  a  writer  of  feiiilletons, 
who  pleased  them  by  the  vigor  with  which  he 
handled  the  knout,  and  tickled  the  levity  of  the 
million,  who  laughed  while  they  saw  the  half- 
dozen  or  more  victims  flayed  by  merciless  satire. 
Berlioz  wept  tears  of  blood  because  he  had  to 
do  such  executioner's  work,  but  did  it  none  the 
less  vigorously  for  all  that. 

The  composer  made  another  musical  journey 
in  Austria  and  Hungary  in  1844-'45,  where  he 
was  again  received  with  the  most  enthusiastic 
praise  and  pleasure.  It  was  in  Hungary,  espe- 


BERLIOZ.  279 

cially,  that  the  warmth  of  his  audiences  over- 
ran all  bounds..  One  night,  at  Pesth,  where  he 
played  the  "  Rackoczy  Indule,"  an  orchestral  set- 
ting of  the  martial  hymn  of  the  Magyar  race,  the 
people  were  worked  into  a  positive  frenzy,  and 
they  would  have  flung  themselves  before  him 
that  he  might  walk  over  their  prostrate  bodies. 
Vienna,  Pesth,  and  Prague,  led  the  way,  and  the 
other  cities  followed  in  the  wake  of  an  enthusiasm 
which  has  been  accorded  to  not  many  artists. 
The  French  heard  these  stories  with  amazement, 
for  they  could  not  understand  how  this  musical 
demigod  could  be  the  same  as  he  who  was  little 
better  than  a  witty  buffoon.  During  this  absence 
Berlioz  wrote  the  greater  portion  of  his  "  Damna- 
tion de  Faust,"  and,  as  he  had  made  some  money, 
he  obeyed  the  strong  instinct  which  always  ruled 
him,  the  hope  of  winning  the  suffrages  of  his  own 
countrymen. 

An  eminent  French  critic  claims  that  this 
great  work,  of  which  we  shall  speak  further  on, 
contains  that  which  Gounod's  "Faust"  lacks — 
insight  into  the  spiritual  significance  of  Goethe's 
drama.  Berlioz  exhausted  all  his  resources  in 
producing  it  at  the  Opera  Comique  in  1846,  but 
again  he  was  disappointed  by  its  falling  stillborn 
on  the  public  interest.  Berlioz  was  utterly  ruined, 
and  he  fled  from  France  in  the  dead  of  winter  as 
from  a  pestilence. 

The  genius  of  this  great  man  was  recognized 


280  GREAT    ITALIAN    AND    FRENCH    COMPOSERS. 

in  Holland,  Russia,  Austria,  and  Germany,  but 
among  his  own  countrymen,  for. the  most  part, 
his  name  was  a  laughing-stock  and  a  by-word. 
He  offended  the  pedants  and  the  formalists  by 
his  daring  originality,  he  had  secured  the  hate  of 
rival  musicians  by  the  vigor  and  keenness  of  his 
criticisms.  Berlioz  was  in  the  very  heat  of  the 
artistic  controversy  between  the  classicists  and  ro- 
manticists, and  was  associated  with  Victor  Hugo, 
Alexandre  Durnas,  Delacroix,  Liszt, 'Chopin,  and 
others,  in  fighting  that  acrimonious  art-battle. 
While  he  did  not  stand  formally  with  the  ranks, 
he  yet  secured  a  still  more  bitter  portion  of 
hostility  from  their  powerful  opponents,  for,  to 
opposition  in  principle,  Berlioz  united  a  caustic 
and  vigorous  mode  of  expression.  His  name  was 
a  target  for  the  wits.  "  A  physician  who  plays 
on  the  guitar  and  fancies  himself  a  composer," 
was  the  scoff  of  malignant  gossips.  The  journals 
poured  on  him  a  flood  of  abuse  without  stint. 
French  malignity  is  the  most  venomous  and  un- 
scrupulous in  the  world,  and  Berlioz  was  select  o  I 
as  a  choice  victim  for  its  most  vigorous  exercise, 
none  the  less  willingly  that  he  had  shown  so 
much  skill  and  zest  in  impaling  the  victims  of  his 
own  artistic  and  personal  dislike. 

v. 

To  continue  the  record   of   Berlioz's  life  in 
consecutive  narrative  would  be  without  signifi- 


BERLIOZ.  281 

cance,  for  it  contains  but  little  for  many  years 
except  the  same  indomitable  battle  against  cir- 
cumstance and  enmity,  never  yielding  an  inch, 
and  always  keeping  his  eyes  bent  on  his  own 
lofty  ideal.  In  all  of  art  history  is  there  no  more 
masterful  heroic  struggle  than  Berlioz  waged  for 
thirty-five  years,  firm  in  his  belief  that  some  time, 
if  not  during  his  own  life,  his  principles  would  be 
triumphant,  and  his  name  ranked  among  the  im- 
mortals. But  what  of  the  mean  while?  This 
problem  Berlioz  solved,  in  his  later  as  in  earlier 
years,  by  doing  the  distasteful  work  of  the  liter- 
ary scrub.  But  never  did  he  cease  composing  ; 
though  no  one  would  then  have  his  works,  his 
clear  eye  perceived  the  coming  time  when  his 
genius  would  not  be  denied,  when  an  apotheosis 
should  comfort  his  spirit  wandering  in  Hades. 

Among  Berlioz's  later  works  was  an  opera  of 
which  he  had  composed  both  words  and  music, 
consisting  of  two  parts,  "  The  Taking  of  Troy," 
and  "The  Trojans  at  Carthage,"  the  latter  of 
which  at  last  secured  a  few  representations  at  a 
minor  theatre  in  1863.  The  plan  of  this  work 
required  that  it  should  be  carried  out  under  the 
most  perfect  conditions.  "  In  order,"  says  Ber- 
lioz, "to  properly  pi-oduce  such  a  work  as  'Les 
Trojans,'  I  must  be  absolute  master  of  the  the- 
atre, as  of  the  orchestra  in  directing  a  symphony. 
I  must  have  the  good- will  of  all,  be  obeyed  by 
all,  from  prima  donna  to  scene-shifter.  A  lyrical 


o,S •>  GREAT   ITALIAN    AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

theatre,  as  I  conceive  it,  is  a  great  instrument  of 
music,  which,  if  I  am  to  play,  must  be  placed 
unreservedly  in  my  hands."  Wagner  found  a 
King  of  Bavaria  to  help  him  carry  out  a  similar 
colossal  scheme  at  Bayreuth,  but  ill  luck  followed 
a  man  no  less  great  through  life.  His  grand 
"  Trojans  "  was  mutilated,  tinkered,  patched,  and 
belittled,  to  suit  the  Theatre  Lyrique.  It  was  a 
butchery  of  the  work,  but  still  it  yielded  the 
composer  enough  to  justify  his  retirement  from 
the  "  Journal  des  Debats,"  after  thirty  years  of 
slavery. 

Berlioz  was  now  sixty  years  old,  a  lonely  man, 
frail  in  body,  embittered  in  soul  by  the  terrible 
sense  of  failure.  His  wife,  with  whom  he  had 
lived  on  terms  of  alienation,  was  dead  ;  his  only 
son  far  away,  cruising  on  a  man-of-war.  His 
courage  and  ambition  were  gone.  To  one  who 
remarked  that  his  music  belonged  to  the  future, 
he  replied  that  he  doubted  if  it  ever  belonged 
to  the  past.  His  life  seemed  to  have  been  a  mis- 
take, so  iitterly  had  he  failed  to  impress  himself 
on  the  public.  Yet  there  were  times  when  audi- 
ences felt  themselves  moved  by  the  power  of  his 
music  out  of  the  ruts  of  preconceived  opinion  into 
a  prophecy  of  his  coming  greatness.  There  is  an 
interesting  anecdote  told  by  a  French  writer  : 

"  Some  years  ago  M.  Pasdeloup  gave  the  sep- 
tuor  from  the  'Trojans'  at  a  benefit  concert. 
The  best  places  were  occupied  by  the  people  of 


BERLIOZ.  283 

the  world,  but  the  elite  intelligente  were  ranged 
upon  the  highest  seats  of  the  Cirque.  The  pro- 
gramme was  superb,  and  those  who  were  there 
neither  for  Fashion's  nor  Charity's  sake,  but  for 
love  of  what  was  best  in  art,  were  enthusiastic  in 
view  of  all  those  masterpieces.  The  worthless 
overture  of  the  *  Prophete,'  disfiguring  this  fine 
ensemble,  had  been  hissed  by  some  students  of 
the  Conservatoire,  and,  accustomed  as  I  was  to 
the  blindness  of  the  general  public,  knowing  its 
implacable  prejudices,  I  trembled  for  the  fate  of 
the  magnificent  septuor  about  to  follow.  My 
fears  were  strangely  ill-founded,  no  sooner  had 
ceased  this  hymn  of  infinite  love  and  peace,  than 
these  same  students,  and  the  whole  assemblage 
with  them,  burst  into  such  a  tempest  of  applause 
as  I  never  heard  before.  Berlioz  was  hidden  in 
the  further  ranks,  and,  the  instant  he  was  dis- 
covered, the  work  was  forgotten  for  the  man  ; 
his  name  flew  from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  four 
thousand  people  were  standing  upright,  with  their 
arms  stretched  toward  him.  Chance  had  placed 
me  near  him,  and  never  shall  I  forget  the  scene. 
That  name,  apparently  ignored  by  the  crowd,  it 
had  learned  all  at  once,  and  was  repeating  as  that 
of  one  of  its  heroes.  Overcome  as  by  the  strong- 
est emotion  of  his  life,  his  head  upon  his  breast, 
he  listened  to  this  tumultuous  cry  of  '  Vive  Ber- 
lioz ! '  and  when,  on  looking  up,  he  saw  all  eyes 
upon  him  and  all  arms  extended  toward  him,  he 


284  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

could  not  withstand  the  sight ;  he  trembled,  tried 
to  smile,  and  broke  into  sobbing." 

Berlioz's  supremacy  in  the  field  of  orchestral 
composition,  his  knowledge  of  technique,  his 
novel  combination,  his  insight  into  the  resources 
of  instruments,  his  skill  in  grouping,  his  rich 
sense  of  color,  are  incontestably  without  a  parallel, 
except  by  Beethoven  and  Wagner.  He  describes 
his  own  method  of  study  as  follows  : 

"  I  carried  with  me  to  the  opera  the  score  of 
whatever  work  was  on  the  bill,  and  read  during 
the  performance.  In  this  way  I  began  to  famil- 
iarize myself  with  orchestral  methods,  and  to 
learn  the  voice  and  quality  of  the  various  instru- 
ments, if  not  their  range  and  mechanism.  By 
this  attentive  comparison  of  th.e  effect  with  the 
means  employed  to  produce  it,  I  found  the  hidden 
link  uniting  musical  expression  to  the  special  art 
of  instrumentation.  The  study  of  Beethoven, 
Weber,  and  Spontini,  the  impartial  examination 
both  of  the  customs  of  orchestration  and  of  i>n- 
ifxttal  forms  and  combinations,  the  visits  I  made 
to  virtuosi,  the  trials  I  led  them  to  make  upon 
their  respective  instruments,  and  a  little  instinct, 
did  for  me  the  rest." 

The  principal  symphonies  of  Berlioz  are  works 
of  colossal  character  and  richness  of  treatment, 
some  of  them  requiring  several  orchestras.  Con- 
trasting with  these  are  such  marvels  of  delicacy 
as  "Queen  Mab,"  of  which  it  has  been  said  that 


BERLIOZ.  285 

the  "  confessions  of  roses  and  the  complaints  of 
violets  were  noisy  in  comparison."  A  man  of  , 
magnificent  genius  and  knowledge,  he  was  but 
little  understood  during  his  life,  and  it  was  only 
when  his  uneasy  spirit  was  at  rest  that  the  world 
recognized  his  greatness.  Paris,  that  stoned  him 
when  he  was  living,  now  listens  to  his  grand  mu- 
sic with  enthusiasm.  Hector  Berlioz  to  the  last 
never  lost  faith  in  himself,  though  this  man  of 
genius,  in  his  much  suffering  from  depression  and 
melancholy,  gave  good  witness  to  the  truth  of 
Goethe's  lines  : 

"  Who  never  ate  with  tears  his  bread, 

Nor,  weeping  through  the  night's  long  hours, 
Lay  restlessly  tossing  on  his  bed — 

He  knows  ye  not,  ye  heavenly  Posvers   " 

A  man  utterly  without  reticence,  who,  Gallic 
fashion,  would  shout  his  wrongs  and  sufferings  to 
the  uttermost  ends  of  the  earth,  yet  without  a 
smack  of  Gallic  posing  and  affectation,  Berlioz 
talks  much  about  himself,  and  dares  to  estimate 
himself  boldly.  There  was  no  small  vanity  about 
this  colossal  spirit.  He  speaks  of  himself  with 
outspoken  frankness,  as  he  would  discuss  another. 
We  can  not  do  better  than  to  quote  one  of  these 
self -measurements  :  "My  style  is  in  general  very 
daring,  but  it  has  not  the  slightest  tendency  to 
destroy  any  of  the  constructive  elements  of  art. 
On  the  contrary,  I  seek  to  increase  the  number  of 
If) 


286  GREAT    ITALIAN    AM)    FRKNVU    t  oMl'OSKRS. 

these  elements.  I  have  never  dreamed,  as  has 
foolishly  been  supposed  in  France,  of  writing 
music  without  melody.  That  school  exists  to-day 
in  Germany,  and  I  have  a  horror  of  it.  It  is  easy 
for  any  one  to  convince  himself  that,  without  con- 
fining myself  to  taking  a  very  short  melody  for  a 
theme,  as  the  very  greatest  masters  have,  I  have 
always  taken  care  to  invest  my  compositions  with 
a  real  wealth  of  melody.  The  value  of  these 
melodies,  their  distinction,  their  novelty,  and 
charm,  can  be  very  well  contested  ;  it  is  not  for 
me  to  appraise  them.  But  to  deny  their  existence 
is  either  bad  faith  or  stupidity  ;  only  as  these  mel- 
odies are  often  of  very  large  dimensions,  infantile 
and  short-sighted  minds  do  not  clearly  distinguish 
their  form  ;  or  else  they  are  wedded  to  other  sec- 
ondary melodies  which  veil  their  outlines  from 
those  same  infantile  minds  ;  or,  upon  the  whole, 
these  melodies  are  so  dissimilar  to  the  little  wag- 
geries that  the  musical  plebs  call  melodies  that 
they  can  not  make  up  their  minds  to  give  the 
same  name  to  both.  The  dominant  qualities  of 
my  music  are  passionate  expression,  internal  fire, 
rhythmic  animation,  and  unexpected  changes." 

Heinrich  Heine,  the  German  poet,  who  was 
Hcrlioz's  friend,  called  him  a  "colossal  nightin- 
gale, a  lark  of  eagle-size,  such  as  they  tell  us  ex- 
isted in  the  primeval  world."  The  poet  goes  on  to 
say  :  "  Berlioz's  music,  in  general,  has  in  it  some- 
thing primeval  if  not  antediluvian  to  my  mind  ; 


BERLIOZ.  287 

it  makes  me  think  of  gigantic  species  of  extinct 
animals,  of  fabulous  empires  full  of  fabulous  sins, 
of  heaped-up  impossibilities  ;  his  magical  accents 
call  to  our  minds  Babylon,  the  hanging  gardens^ 
the  wonders  of  Nineveh,  the  daring  edifices  of 
Mizraim,  as  we  see  them  in  the  pictures  of  the 
Englishman  Martin."  Shortly  after  the  publi- 
cation of  "Lutetia,"  in  which  this  bold  charac- 
terization was  expressed,  the  .first  performance 
of  Berlioz's  "  Enfance  du  Christ "  was  given,  and 
the  poet,  who  was  on  his  sick-bed,  wrote  a  peni- 
tential letter  to  his  friend  for  not  having  given  him 
full  justice.  "  I  hear  on  all  sides,"  he  says,  "  that 
you  have  just  plucked  a  nosegay  of  the  sweetest  me- 
lodious flowers,  and  that  your  oratorio  is  through- 
out a  masterpiece  of  naivete.  I  shallnever  forgive 
myself  for  having  been  so  unjust  to  a  friend." 

Berlioz  died  at  the  age  of  sixty-five.  His  fu- 
neral services  were  held  at  the  Church  of  the 
Trinity,  a  few  days  after  those  of  Rossini.  The 
discourse  at  the  grave  was  pronounced  by  Gou- 
nod, and  many  eloquent  things  were  said  of  him, 
among  them  a  quotation  of  the  epitaph  of  Mar- 
shal Trivulce,  "  Hie  tandem  quieseit  qui  nun- 
quam  quievit"  (Here  is  he  quiet,  at  last,  who  never 
was  quiet  before).  Soon  after  his  death  appeared 
his  "Mcmoires,"  and  his  bones  had  hardly  got 
cold  when  the  performance  of  his  music  at  the 
Conservatoire,  the  Cirque,  and  the  Chatelet  began 
to  be  heard  with  the  most  hearty  enthusiasm. 


288  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 


VI. 

THEOPIIILE  GAUTIER  says  that  no  one  will 
deny  to  Berlioz  a  great  character,  though,  the 
world  being  given  to  controversies,  it  may  be 
argued  whether  or  not  he  was  a  great  genius.  The 
world  of  to-day  has  but  one  opinion  on  both  these 
questions.  The  force  of  Berlioz's  character  was 
phenomenal.  His  vitality  was  so  passionate  and 
active  that  brain  and  nerve  quivered  with  it,  and 
made  him  reach  out  toward  experience  at  every 
facet  of  his  nature.  Quietude  was  torture,  rest  a 
sin,  for  this  daring  temperament.  His  eager  and 
subtile  intelligence  pierced  every  sham,  and  his 
imagination  knew  no  bounds  to  its  sweep,  often- 
times even  disdaining  the  bounds  of  art  in  its 
audacity  and  impatience.  This  big,  virile  nature, 
thwarted  and  embittered  by  opposition,  became 
hardened  into  violent  self-assertion  ;  this  naturally 
resolute  will  settled  back  into  fierce  obstinacy  ; 
this  fine  nature,  sensitive  and  sincere,  got  torn  and 
ragged  with  passion  under  the  stress  of  his  unfor- 
tunate life.  But,  at  one  breath  of  true  sympathy 
how  quickly  the  nobility  of  the  man  asserted  it- 
self !  All  his  cynicism  and  hatred  melted  away, 
and  left  only  sweetness,  truth,  and  genial  kind- 
ness. 

When  Berlioz  entered  on  his  studies,  he  had 
reached  an  age  at  which  Mozart,  Schubert,  Men- 
delssohn, Rossini,  and  others,  had  already  done 


BERLIOZ.  289 

some  of  the  best  work  of  their  lives.  Yet  it  took 
only  a  few  years  to  achieve  a  development  that 
produced  such  a  great  work  as  the  "  Symphonic 
Fantastique,"  the  prototype  of  modern  programme 
music. 

From  first  to  last  it  was  the  ambition  of  Ber- 
lioz to  widen  the  domain  of  his  art.  He  strove 
to  attain  a  more  intimate  connection  between  in- 
strumental music  and  poetry  in  the  portrayal  of 
intense  passions,  and  the  suggestion  of  well-de- 
fined dramatic  situations.  In  spite  of  the  fact 
that  he  frequently  overshot  his  mark,  it  does  not 
make  his  works  one  whit  less  astonishing.  An 
uncompromising  champion  of  what  has  been 
dubbed  "  programme  "  music,  he  thought  it  legiti- 
mate to  force  the  imagination  of  the  hearer  to 
dwell  on  exterior  scenes  during  the  progress  of 
the  music,  and  to  distress  the  mind  in  its  attempt 
to  find  an  exact  relation  between  the  text  and 
the  music.  The  most  perfect  specimens  of  the 
works  of  Berlioz,  however,  are  those  in  which  the 
music  speaks  for  itself,  such  as  the  "Scene  aux 
Champs,"  and  the  "  Marche  au  Supplice,"  in  the 
"  Symphonic  Fantastique,"  the  "Marche  des  Pe- 
lerins,"  in  "  Harold  "  ;  the  overtures  to  "  King 
Lear,"  "  Benvenuto  Cellini,"  "  Carnaval  Remain," 
"  Le  Corsaire,"  "  Les  Francs  Juges,"  etc. 

As  a  master  of  the  orchestra,  no  one  has  been 
the  equal  of  Berlioz  in  the  whole  history  of  music, 
not  even  Beethoven  or  Wagner,  He  treats  the  or- 


290  GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

chestra  with  the  absolute  daring  and  mastery  ex- 
ercised by  Paganini  over  the  violin,  and  by  Liszt 
over  the  piano.  No  one  has  showed  so  deep  an 
insight  into  the  individuality  of  each  instrument, 
its  resources,  the  extent  to  which  its  capabili- 
ties could  be  carried.  Between  the  phrase  and 
the  instrument,  or  group  of  instruments,  the 
equality  is  perfect ;  and  independent  of  this 
power,  made  up  equally  of  instinct  and  knowl- 
edge, this  composer  shows  a  sense  of  orchestral 
color  in  combining  single  instruments  so  as  to  ' 
form  groups,  or  in  the  combination  of  several 
separate  groups  of  instruments  by  which  he  has 
produced  the  most  novel  and  beautiful  effects — 
effects  not  found  in  other  composers.  The  origi- 
nality and  variety  of  his  rhythms,  the  perfection 
of  his  instrumentation,  have  never  been  disputed 
even  by  his  opponents.  In  many  of  his  works, 
especially  those  of  a  religious  character,  there  is 
a  Cyclopean  bigness  of  instrumental  means  used, 
entirely  beyond  parallel  in  art.  Like  the  Titans 
of  old,  he  would  scale  the  very  heavens  in  his  dar- 
ing. In  one  of  his  works  he  does  not  hesitate  to 
use  three  orchestras,  three  choruses  (all  of  full  di- 
mensions), four  organs,  and  a  triple  quartet.  The 
conceptions  of  Berlioz  were  so  grandiose  that  he 
sometimes  disdained  detail,  and  the  result  was 
that  more  than  one  of  his  compositions  have 
rugged  grandeur  at  the  expense  of  symmetry  and 
balance  of  form. 


BERLIOZ.  293 

Yet,  when  he  chose,  Berlioz  could  write  the 
most  exquisite  and  dainty  lyrics  possible.  What 
could  be  more  exquisitely  tender  than  many  of  his 
songs  and  romances,  and  various  of  the  airs  and 
choral  pieces  from  "  Beatrice  et  Benedict,"  from 
"Nuits  dlS'te","  "Irlande,"  and  from  "L'Enfance 
du  Christ "  ? 

Berlioz  in  his  entirety,  as  man  and  composer, 
was  a  most  extraordinary  being,  to  whom  the  or- 
dinary scale  of  measure  can  hardly  be  applied. 
Though  he  founded  no  new  school,  he  pushed  to  a 
fuller  development  the  possibilities  to  which  Beet- 
hoven reached  out  in  the  Ninth  Symphony.  He 
was  the  great  virtuoso  on  the  orchestra,  and  on 
this  Briarean  instrument  he  played  with  the  most 
amazing  skill.  Others  have  surpassed  him  in  the 
richness  of  the  musical  substance  out  of  which 
their  tone-pictures  are  woven,  in  symmetry  of 
form,  in  finish  of  detail ;  but  no  one  has  ever 
equaled  him  in  that  absolute  mastery  over  in- 
struments, by  which  a  hundred  become  as  plas- 
tic and  flexible  as  one,  and  are  made  to  embody 
every  phase  of  the  composer's  thought  with  that 
warmth  of  color  and  precision  of  form  long  be- 
lieved to  be  necessarily  confined  to  the  sister  arts. 


292   CHEAT    ITALIAN    AND    FRENCH    COMPOSERS. 


SAINT-SAENS,   BIZET,    AND    MASSENET. 

THE  latter  tendencies  of  Gallic  music,  which 
brim  over  the  confines  of  any  chauvinistic  or  sec- 
tional spirit  and  are  forcing  their  way  with  a  large 
sincerity  toward  the  blending  of  the  world's  best 
vintages  with  their  own,  find  typical  representa- 
tives in  three  musicians,  one  of  whom  is  dead,  alter 
having  left  a  monument  in  "  Carmen,"  an  opera 
which  will  live  as  long  as  "  Faust  "  or  the  "  Hu- 
guenots" ;  and  the  other  two  of  whom  still  pur- 
sue active  and  brilliant  careers,  gaining  larger 
fame  each  year.  They  have  nobly  furthered  the 
catholic  spirit,  which  inspired  the  commanding 
genius  of  Gounod. 


CHARLES  CAMILLE  SAINT-SAENS,  the  oldest  of 
ihe  trio,  was  Paris-born,  October  9,  1835,  and. 
musician-like,  indicated  his  remarkable  endow- 
ment from  the  earliest  years.  He  entered  the 
Conservatoire  in  1848,  and  won  the  prizes  for 
organ-playing  and  symphony  composition,  though, 
strange  to  say,  he  sa\v  the  Prix  de  Rome  in  three 
successive  competitions  carried  off  by  his  inferiors. 
In  IS(>7  lie  wrote  the  Pri/e  Cantata  for  the  Inter- 
national Exposition,  and  Berlioz  pronounced  him 
one  of  the  greatest  musicians  of  the  age — a  dictum 
which  Billow  ratified  in  18?u,  after  having  heard 


JULES   E.    F.    MASSENET. 


PAIXT-8AEXS,    BIZET,    AXD    MASSEXET.        293 

him  read  the  score  of  Siegfried  on  the  piano.  He 
became  a  celebrity  in  Paris  as  organist  and  piano- 
player,  and  his  chamber  and  orchestral  music,  his 
sonatas  and  masses,  made  him  a  great  name  among 
musicians,  though  he  remained  "caviare  to  the  gen- 
eral." Indeed,  no  man  could  grasp  a  large  measure 
of  favor  in  France  at  that  time  unless  as  an  opera 
composer,  and  it  was  here  that  the  genius  of  Saint- 
Saens  failed,  though  he  made  assiduous  experi- 
ments. Perhaps  there  was  something  profound 
and  austere  in  his  nature  which  could  not  fit  itself 
to  the  exigencies  of  dramatic  music,  especially  that 
side  of  it  which  was  the  French  vogue,  in  spite  of 
a  few  magnificent  successes  in  the  nobler  operatic 
school,  such  as  "  Faust  "  and  "  Mignon."  "  Le 
Princesse  Jeune,"  produced  June  12,  1872;  "Le 
Timbre  d'Argent,"  in  1877  ;  "  Samson  et  Delila  " 
(though  successful  at  Weimar,  where  it  was  first 
produced  in  1877)  ;  "  F,tienne  Marcel,"  in  1879  ; 
"  Henri  VIII,"  in  1883;  "Proserpine,"  in  1887, 
and  "Ascanio,"  in  1890 — were  "  damned  with  faint 
praise,"  though  "  Samson  et  Delila  "  was  honored 
in  1892  by  a  place  on  the  list  of  the  Academic. 
All  these  works  were  admirably  written  and  or- 
chestrated, and  marked  by  serious  elevation  of 
purpose.  It  may  be  that  the  future  will  offer  the 
composer  a  late  reparation  ;  for  what  may  not  be 
expected  of  a  Paris  which  now  has  begun  to  make  an 
idol  of  Berlioz,  which,  after  many  years  of  indif- 
ference to  "  Carmen,"  now  welcomes  it  with  true 


294   GREAT   ITALIAN    AM)    FRENCH    COMFOSER*. 

French  effervescence,  which  takes  the  keenest  ap- 
parent delight  in  the  Wagner  music  drama  once 
buried  under  volcanic  abuse  by  critics  and  public? 
Aside  from  the  music  of  the  stage,  however,  Saint- 
Saens  has  received  the  full  meed  of  his  greatness 
as  the  most  profound  and  accomplished  of  living 
French  composers.  As  a  writer  of  orchestral  and 
chamber  music  his  rank  is  pre-eminent  even  in 
other  countries  than  his  own.  The  criticism  that 
he  is  not  a  great  melodist  scarcely  tallies  with  the 
fact  that  he  has  written  upward  of  fifty  charming 
songs,  which  are  household  words  in  French  and 
foreign  music-rooms.  Unlike  Berlioz,  of  whose 
memory  Saint-Saens  is  a  devout  worshiper,  he 
has  drunk  deeply  from  the  fountains  of  the  past, 
and  knows  all  his  great  predecessors  by  heart 
from  Bach  to  Wagner.  Yet  this  eclectic  study 
has  in  nowise  impaired  his  own  originality,  but 
rather  enriched  it  with  a  life  more  ripe  and  solid. 
Saint-Saens  has  made  frequent  visits  to  England, 
Germany,  Russia,  and  Italy,  and  has  been  received 
with  a  warmth  attesting  the  cosmopolitan  recog- 
nition of  his  genius,  though  his  personality  is  said 
to  be  by  no  means  genial  or  effusive,  but  rather 
disdainful  of  anything  like  a  social  following,  a 
quality  in  which  he  is  as  on-Gallic  as  he  is  in  the 
essential  genre  of  his  musical  endowment.  His 
prolific  industry  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  many 
years  ago  his  opus  numbers  reached  sixty-four, 
besides  numerous  unnumbered  pieces. 


SAIXT-SAENS,   BIZET,    AND   MASSENET.        295 


II. 

FRENCH  pride  in  GEORGES  BIZET  should  be 
mingled  with  the  bitter  of  remorse,  for  it  allowed 
this  gifted  man  to  go  to  his  grave  in  cruel  uncer- 
tainty as  to  the  fate  of  an  opera  which  was  to 
make  his  name  immortal.  He  lived  a  life  of 
drudgery,  and  passed  away  in  the  prime  of  life  at 
thirty-seven.  His  extraordinary  musical  faculties 
were  built  up  with  the  soundest  training,  and  he 
brought  to  his  work  not  only  inspiration  and  in- 
sight, but  a  scholarship  in  his  art  and  a  catholic 
sympathy  of  taste  which  clasped  cordial  hands 
across  the  Rhine.  Had  he  lived,  French  music 
might  have  expected  an  impetus  from  his  fully 
developed  powers,  which  would  have  added  great- 
ly to  the  glory  of  national  art.  As  it  was,  he  gave 
to  his  country  and  to  the  world  one  work  of  tran- 
scendent merit,  as  dramatic  in  its  conception  as  it 
was  powerful  in  execution. 

He  was  born  October  25,  1838,  and  inherited 
musical  talent  from  both  sides  of  the  house.  He 
was  received  in  the  Conservatoire  at  the  age  of 
nine,  and  carried  off  many  brilliant  prizes  during 
his  ten  years  in  the  great  art  institute.  In  1857 
he  received  the  Prix  de  Rome.  His  three  years 
in  Italy  were  well  spent,  as  was  indicated  in  the 
production  of  "Vasco  de  Gama,"  a  descriptive 
symphony  with  choruses,  which  in  later  years  was 
recognized  as  a  masterly  work.  In  1860  he  was 


296    <",REAT    ITALIAN    AND    FRENCH    COMPOSERS. 

b;u:k  in  Paris  in  the  thick  of  that  battle  in  which 
he  was  doomed  to  sink  defeated  though  still  un- 
conquered.  How  prophetic  were  his  own  sen- 
tences written  in  1857  :  "  In  truth  .  .  .  composers 
are  the  pariahs,  the  martyrs  of  modern  society. 
Like  the  gladiators  of  old  they  cry, '  Salve,  papule, 
morituri  te  salutant!'1  0  Music!  what  a  splen- 
did art,  what  a  melancholy  profession  !  " 

His  short  career  of  fifteen  years  was  a  heart- 
breaking treadmill  of  hack-work  to  earn  a  bare 
living.  Piano-lessons  and  transcriptions,  scoring 
dance-music,  etc.,  exhausted  time  and  energy,  and 
his  genius  for  composition  straggled  hard  for  ex- 
pression. Carvalhogave  him  a  commission  to  com- 
pose the  three-act  opera  "  Les  Pecheurs  de  Perles," 
but  it  was  heard  with  more  surprise  than  pleasure  by 
audiences  who  abhorred  neology  in  art.  Twenty 
years  later,  transformed  into  an  Italian  opera,  it 
was  successful  in  London,  Madrid,  and  Vienna. 
'I  he  work  was  heartily  damned,  a  verdict  perhaps 
helped  by  the  cordial  praise  of  the  great  Berlioz. 
His  next  essay  was  a  five-act  opera,  "  Ivan  the 
Terrible,"  composed  in  the  Verdi  style,  which  he 
withdrew  after  acceptance  at  the  Theatre  Lyrique, 
and  reserved  for  a  grand  auto-da-fe,  with  other 
productions  condemned  by  his  artistic  taste.  His 
conscience  was  inexorable  in  spite  of  the  stress  of 
poverty.  The  friendly  Carvalho  again  commis- 
sio.ied  him  to  compose  an  opera  for  the  Lyrique 
to  a  libretto  taken  from  Scott's  "  St.  Valentine's 


SAINT  SAHXS,    BIZET,    AND    MASKEXET.        297 

Day,"  and  "  La  Jolie  Fille  de  Perth,"  after  a  year's 
delay,  was  staged  in  1807.  It  ran  for  twenty 
nights,  and  was  then  shelved,  in  spite  of  the  ap- 
proval of  the  cognoscenti.  Carvalho  released  the 
musician  from  a  worse  drudgery  by  using  his  ex- 
traordinary talent  of  sight-reading  in  playing  the 
scores  of  the  numerous  operas  sent  for  examina- 
tion, and  this  kept  his  head  above  water  for  a 
good  while. 

He  married  a  daughter  of  the  composer  Hal6vy 
in  1869,  whose  acquaintance  he  had  made  through 
his  labors  in  completing  the  score  of  a  posthumous 
work  of  her  father.  "  Djamileh,"  a  one-act  opera 
based  on  De  Musset's  morbid  psychological  story 
of  "Namouna,"  fell  still-born  in  1872.  All  this 
time  the  terrible  charge  of  Wagnerism,  then  as 
fatal  a  cry  as  "  Mad  dog  ! "  was  being  hurled  against 
the  composer,  though  he  bore  the  pelting  with 
scornful  indifference.  The  same  year  the  beau- 
tiful incidental  music  to  David's  "  L'Arlesienne" 
gave  him  a  taste  of  the  sweets  of  public  applause, 
but  little  of  which  it  had  been  his  good  luck  to 
enjoy.  It  was  in  March,  1875,  that  "Carmen" 
was  put  on  the  stage  at  the  Opera  Comique  ;  and 
on  the  thirty-third  night  of  its  thirty-seven  per- 
formances Bizet  answered  that  "  knock  at  the 
gate  "  which  finally  assaults  all  the  habitations  of 
men  : 

"...  Tabernas  pauperum  regumque  turres." 


208   GREAT   ITALIAN    AND   FRENCH   COMPOSERS. 

lie  died  a  prematurely  old,  broken-down  man, 
though  he  was  still  valiant  with  hope  and  pluck. 
"  Carmen  "  was  only  a  succds  d'estime,  and  it  was 
not  till  eight  years  later,  when  all  the  foreign 
opera-houses  had  rung  with  delighted  salvos  over 
this  magnificent  work,  that  France  awakened  from 
its  lethargy  to  the  greatness  of  the  man  she  had 
neglected  and  lost. 

In  "  Carmen  "  the  genius  and  musical  knowl- 
edge of  Bizet  flowered  into  one  superb  master- 
piece. Individuality  and  creative  energy  fire 
every  part  of  the  score,  and  the  poet-passion,  the 
power  of  the  "  maker,"  bourgeons  into  a  fullness 
and  variety  of  characterization  which  make  the 
work  throb  with  human  life  through  all  the  bars 
of  musical  convention.  The  orchestration  is  no 
less  solid  than  brilliant,  the  richness  of  the  melody 
no  less  enchanting  to  the  ear  than  its  dramatic 
fitness  to  the  imagination.  It  must  always  be  al- 
lowed one  of  the  topmost  achievements  in  the 
lyrico-dramatic  music  of  the  world. 

in. 

THE  father  of  JULES  F^MILE  FREDERIC  MAS- 
SENET was  an  iron-master  near  St.-Etienne,  for- 
merly an  officer  under  the  First  Empire,  so  the 
youth  of  the  musician,  who  was  born  May  11, 
1842,  was  passed  amid  affluent  surroundings.  His 
talent  received  its  earliest  training  from  his 
mother,  and  he  entered  the  Conservatoire  at  the 


SAINT  SAEN>,    BIXKT,    AND   MASSENET.       099 

age  of  ton.  Here  he  studied  with  various  inter- 
missions till  18G3,  when  he  was  awarded  the  Prix 
de  Itome,  the  "  blue  ribbon  "  of  the  French  schools. 
On  his  return  to  France  he  was  warmly  befriended 
by  Thomas,  who  had  the  liveliest  faith  in  his 
future — a  future  which  promised  to  be  unclouded 
by  the  miseries  of  the  garret,  for  he  had  ample 
private  resources,  as  well  as  the  courage  of  a 
superb  confidence,  a  strength  which  so  often  oozes 
away  at  the  last  in  disappointment  and  despair. 
Shortly  after  his  return  (1867)  his  first  opera,  "  La 
Grande  Tantc,"  was  put  on  the  stage  of  the 
Comique  and  made  an  agreeable  impression.  His 
work  was  interrupted  by  the  Franco-German  War, 
and  during  the  siege  of  Paris  he  did  active  mili- 
tary duty.  Massenet  has  written  about  those 
days,  the  terrible  stress  of  which  did  not  entirely 
kill  his  devotion  to  his  Muse,  in  a  strain  of  pas- 
sionate eloi|uence.  Among  those  who  fell  by  his 
side  was  his  dear  friend  Henri  Regnault,  the  great 
painter. 

When  peace  came  again,  Massenet  renewed 
his  labors  with  increased  ardor.  His  beautiful 
opera,  "  Don  Cesar  de  Bazan,"  was  staged  at  the 
Lyri«jue  in  1H72,  and  the  next  year  saw  the  pro- 
duction of  the  fine  incidental  music  to  Le  Conte 
de  Lisle's  drama  of  "  Les  Erinnyes  "  and  the  ora- 
torio of  "  Marie  Magdalene."  "  Le  Roi  de  La- 
hore," one  of  Massenet's  most  successful  works, 
was  accepted  at  the  Academic  in  1877,  and  the 


300   GREAT   ITALIAN   AND   FRENCH    COMPOSERS. 

next  year  he  was  made  a  professor  of  the  piano 
at  the  Conservatoire.  "  Narcisse,"  a  cantata,  and 
"  La  Vierge,"  an  opera,  were  done  in  1879.  Other 
dates  of  his  lyric  productions  were  :  "Manon,"  in 
1883;  "Le  Cid,"  in  1885,  and  the  same  year 
"  Ilerodiade,"  at  Brussels;  and  "  Esclarmonde," 
in  1889,  which  drew  brilliant  and  crowded  audi- 
ences in  Paris  for  one  hundred  nights.  The  corn- 
poser  tells  us  that  the  impulse  to  write  this  opera 
was  given  him  by  the  American  singer,  Miss  Sibyl 
Sanderson,  who  afterward  interpreted  the  title 
role.  Since  that  time  he  has  written  "  Le  Mage  " 
and  "  Werther,"  the  latter  based  on  the  story  of 
Goethe's  novel.  The  last-named  work  was  pro- 
duced on  the  stage  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House  in  New  York  at  the  close  of  the  season  of 
1894,  and  though  only  a  succ&s  d'cstime  was  duly 
appreciated  for  its  brilliant  episodes.  To  these 
lyric  works  must  be  added  many  orchestral  and 
chamber  pieces,  piano  compositions,  including 
three  concertos,  and  songs.  Admirable  player  :is 
well  as  composer,  he,  like  Saint-Saens,  has  a  na- 
tional reputation  as  a  pianist  and  organist,  though 
he  has  never  posed  as  virtuoso. 

Massenet's  music,  both  for  the  stage  and  con- 
cert-room, has  the  vivid,  sharply-accented  charac- 
teristics of  the  typical  French  school,  and  is  full 
of  orchestral  color  and  boldness.  To  this  his 
ability  as  a  contrapuntist  and  his  thorough  schol- 
arship add  the  sound  construction  which,  at  its 


SAINT-SAEXS,   BIZET,   AND   MASSENET.       301 

best,  we  associate  with  Germany.  Like  Saint- 
Saens  and  Bizet,  he  has  a  deep  sympathy  with 
the  works  of  the  giants  of  German  music  and  has 
made  a  profound  study  of  them,  and  this  influence 
is  seen  everywhere  in  his  methods  and  the  art 
mechanism  by  which  he  produces  his  effects  ;  but 
his  talent  shines  clear  through  all  and  stamps  its 
individuality  on  his  work.  Massenet,  though  a 
passionately  loyal  Frenchman,  would  be  the  last 
to  deny  his  art-obligations  to  the  traditional  ene- 
mies of  bis  people.  Another  curious  trait  may 
be  noted.  Unlike  the  older  school  of  musicians, 
but  following  the  versatile  model  of  Berlioz  and 
Saint-Saens,  Massenet  is  a  brilliant  writer  and 
critic.  It  may  be  owing  to  this  fact — the  presid- 
ing energy  of  the  analytic  faculty — that  his  or- 
chestral music  has  suffered  the  occasional  indict- 
ment of  showing  too  much  the  machinery  of 
construction  and  of  lacking  the  glow  of  imagi- 
native passion  which  (to  take  the  greatest  exam- 
ples) burns  with  such  splendid  fire  in  the  instru- 
mental works  of  Beethoven,  Schubert,  and  Berlioz, 
and  illumines  in  scarcely  less  degree  the  dramatic 
music  of  Gounod  and  Bizet. 


(i) 


THE    END. 


20 


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